Timberwolves rookie big man Karl-Anthony Towns has played in one game and he’s already impressing one of the greatest players in NBA history.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 career points are the most of all time, and the 68-year-old Laker legend watched the Timberwolves-Lakers game Wednesday night – and his first impression of Towns was good.
“He was like 3-for-4 from 3-point range, so that type of versatility is good,” Abdul-Jabbar told ESPN’s Mike and Mike. “I coached Pau (Gasol) when he was with the Lakers and his versatility made it real easy for me to coach him. That’s the easiest job I had – coaching him. The most difficult job I had was coaching Andrew Bynum because he didn’t really want to do it.”
Bynum is basically a bust while Gasol has been one of the best big men in the league for the last 15 years.
Towns was actually 0-for-1 on 3-point attempts, but we’ll give Abdul-Jabbar a pass because he was spot on when praising Towns’ versatility.
Towns’ first career basket was a dunk, and he followed that with a sweet fadeaway over Roy Hibbert, a baby hook in the lane over Julius Randle and a series of jump shots.
The first of many!https://t.co/64e8CniJAc
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) October 29, 2015
Karl-Anthony Towns works Julius Randle in the lane, hits hook pic.twitter.com/fA5lSvXcUX
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) October 29, 2015
Karl-Anthony Towns working baseline, shooting over Roy Hibbert pic.twitter.com/GTiTX9kQZE
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) October 29, 2015
Towns finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds to become the first Wolves rookie to post a double-double in his NBA debut.
