{"id":687986,"date":"2026-06-06T13:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687986\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T13:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:36:09","slug":"karl-anthony-towns-gets-emotional-while-talking-about-his-late-mother-after-knicks-game-2-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687986\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns gets emotional while talking about his late mother after Knicks\u2019 Game 2 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> turned the Knicks<\/a>\u2019 Game 2 escape into something deeply personal while speaking about his late mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns.<\/p>\n

New York edged San Antonio<\/a> 105-104 to move ahead 2-0 in the NBA Finals, but Towns\u2019 mind was not on the numbers after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

For Towns, Victor Wembanyama\u2019s missed jumper at the buzzer was not just a lucky break. It felt like another sign from someone he still feels close to.<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns finds strength from his mother again<\/p>\n

Speaking to ESPN after the game<\/a>, Towns shared how he prayed to his mother before the Spurs\u2019 last play, and how the miss felt meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose a parent\u2026you just look for signs, and I\u2019ll take any sign I could get, and I prayed to her strongly before that possession. I take it as a sign my mom was there with me, so I appreciate her so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother died on April 13, 2020, from COVID-19 complications. Towns has often spoken about how that loss changed him, and this Finals run has brought those feelings back into focus.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

After Game 1, he said he felt an unusual calm, as if she was watching. Following Game 2, he went further in a post-game interview with ESPN\u2019s SVP<\/a>, connecting his grief to Philippians 4:13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like other than losing a child, there\u2019s nothing worse you could go through, and it builds you up, and it strengthens you beyond measure\u2026 I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but I was strengthened on April 13 when I lost my mother. That\u2019s been my favorite Bible verse my whole entire life since I was little. I didn\u2019t know the significance it would have in my life when I became an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns has a real Finals MVP lane<\/p>\n

Towns\u2019 emotion is now attached to production. He led New York in Game 2 with 21 points and 13 rebounds, giving him 39 points and 25 rebounds across the first two Finals games.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson<\/a> still owns the captain\u2019s narrative after scoring 30 in Game 1 and making the go-ahead free throw in Game 2. But his 20 points on 7-for-25 shooting left room for Towns to close the gap.<\/p>\n

Through two games, Brunson has the leadership case, while Towns has the consistency case. He has been New York\u2019s best interior scorer and rebounder, and has been a much-better defender than Brunson.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks finish this series quickly and Towns keeps outplaying his matchup, Finals MVP becomes more than a sentimental possibility. It becomes a real race.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns turned the Knicks\u2019 Game 2 escape into something deeply personal while speaking about his late mother,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[298776,36783,36782,25169,355,6999,99],"class_list":["post-687986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-jacqueline-cruz-towns","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}