
Karl-Anthony Towns’ Dominican heritage has a Knicks’ stage: ‘He’s home’
NY Post
It hit Karl-Anthony Towns at the cookout.
The Dominican side of the family, his mother’s side, was hosting the gathering in Perth Amboy, N.J. — a weekend tradition of Towns’ youth that the Knicks center missed while embarking on an NBA All-Star career.
In that moment — which was after his trade to the Knicks — nostalgia met appreciation for the opportunities back home.
“We’re all looking at the next generation and enjoying the cookouts in the same backyard with the same basketball hoop I was playing with when I was dreaming of being an NBA player,” Towns told The Post. “And for my Dominican culture and my family, it hit me in a way that it’s like, these cookouts that I haven’t been around for, for a decade-plus, I have a chance to make them now.”
Towns, a product of Piscataway, never lived in the Dominican Republic. His Spanish is spotty, at best.
But the center’s link to the community is powerful and mutual, solidified by a decision to represent the Dominican national team despite overtures from powerhouse Team USA.

Suddenly, someone had hit a rewind button and everyone had been transported back seven months. It was early spring instead of late fall, it was broiling hot outside the arena walls and not freezing cold. Everyone was back at TD Garden. There were 19,156 frenzied fans on their feet begging for blood, poised for the kill.












