Karl-Anthony Towns really doesn’t like the nickname he was given when he came to the Minnesota Timberwolves?
You mean KAT? The acronym of his name? Nope, not that one.
He’s talking about “The Big Purr.”
Appearing on Podcast P with Paul George, Towns expressed admiration for the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic’s nickname, “The Joker,” and lamented that his nickname has been feline-related ever since the moment of his birth.
“He got Joker I got KAT,” Towns said, and when asked by George when he got that nickname: “It was on. November 15, 1995 at 8 p.m. at John F. Kennedy Hospital, my [inaudible] walked in that motherf****** and said ‘Karl-Anthony Towns’, and she didn’t realize that would follow me for a long f****** time.”
The KAT nickname naturally stuck when Towns played for the Kentucky Wildcats in college, but he apparently was given a new monicker when he was drafted No. 1 by the Timberwolves in 2015.
“Then I came to Minnesota and they decided to call me ‘Big Purr’ what the f*** is that?”
Um … what?
We’ve done some searching in the annals of the internet and can’t really find a whole lot of examples of KAT being called “The Big Purr” following his drafting.
There was one incident in 2021 when the Timberwolves’ Twitter account referred to Towns as “The Big Purr” but then hastily deleted the tweet when it attracted widespread mockery.
When the @Timberwolves called KAT the “Big Purr” I was ready to block them forever. pic.twitter.com/Uc8UqSyQad
— Average T-Wolf (@AverageTWolf) October 5, 2021
Don’t call him the big purr again
— ciabatta (@johnny_ciabatta) April 6, 2021
Since then, there have been plenty of feline references due to his name, but The Big Purr has never entered common parlance in Wolves circles.
So we’re sorry KAT, nice story, but “The Big Purr” has has never been your nickname in Minnesota.
It is now, though.
Related: Karl-Anthony Towns says he took the high road after Jimmy Butler outburst
Here’s the KAT segment on Podcast P (warning: contains naughty words).
KAT was disgusted that his nickname is Big Purr 💀💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/sKPtD3nyY8
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) May 8, 2023
