Warriors’ Green: Podcast remarks on Knicks’ Towns ‘what I heard’
NEW YORK — Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green sent well wishes to New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns after the death of a family friend, but said Thursday he was just relaying what he heard when he said on his podcast that Towns didn’t play for the Knicks against Golden State this week because Jimmy Butler was in the building.
Towns was listed out for personal reasons when the Warriors beat the Knicks 114-102 on Tuesday. Green, during his podcast with former NBA player Baron Davis, said that “some would say he didn’t play because Jimmy was in the building.”
He was referencing the tensions involving Butler and Towns when they were teammates in Minnesota and Butler was seeking a trade.
Green said on the podcast that he talked to Towns’ father when he saw him at the game.
“His pops is an incredible man, but they say KAT didn’t play because Jimmy came into town, and you know him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota,” Green said.
Towns rejoined the Knicks in Los Angeles for their game against the Lakers on Thursday and told reporters he had been away from the team to be with his family after the death of a friend.
“This is one of those moments where I had to be there for my family and be there for the kids that lost somebody really special to them,” Towns said.
Green was not aware of that until after the Warriors’ 121-119 win over Brooklyn on Thursday.
“That’s unfortunate, I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks,” Green said. “But my comments that I made were, you know, ‘People, what I heard was this.’ That’s what I heard. So I do send my well wishes to him and his family.
“It’s inevitable, we all experience death in one way or another, and we’ll all experience it in the same way one day. So it’s unfortunate, you never wish that on anybody, but ‘The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis’ must go on.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NEW YORK — Stephen Curry took a bounce pass from Jimmy Butler on the edge of the Brooklyn Nets’ half-court logo with his back to the Golden State Warriors’ basket and three seconds left in the first half Thursday.
Without taking a dribble, Curry launched a turnaround 3-pointer between two Nets defenders from 38 feet that hit the bottom of the net. Even by Curry’s standards of burying ridiculous 3-point bombs, the degree of difficulty on this one was high.
Seeing that the shot went in with 0.3 left, Curry ran down the court with his hand raised and straight into the tunnel toward the Warriors locker room.
Curry put on a show in Brooklyn as he scored 40 points and hit seven 3-pointers to help Golden State erase a 22-point deficit and beat the Nets 121-119 before 18,413 at Barclays Center.
By the end, just like at Madison Square Garden in a Warriors’ 114-102 win over the Knicks on Tuesday night, much of the road crowd buzzed and roared like a Warriors’ home crowd for Curry.
“Most people can make that shot, luckily,” Warriors teammate Draymond Green said. “[But] we all knew that shot was going in. It really changes the momentum. I think that’s the second time, this road trip, that he’s had one changed the momentum like that. It’s a big, big momentum shifter for us going into the locker room.”
The Warriors completed a five-game East Coast trip 4-1 with their only loss coming in Philadelphia with Butler out because of back spasms. During much of this trip, the Warriors rode Curry’s hot hand. He started the stretch in Orlando with a 56-point explosion and 12 3-pointers that was highlighted by a 56-foot running halftime-beating heave near the Magic half-court logo in a 121-115 win.
“I just think the degree of difficulty is so crazy,” Green said of Curry’s offensive outings on this trip. “You could see a guy score 40 points and be like, ‘Man, he had a good game.’ But when you see him score 40 points, it is totally different because … he’s literally putting on a show.
“It’s like you went and watch a Cirque du Soleil or something. It is not your typical show you’re going to watch. It’s a whole bunch of different acrobatics that go into it.”
On this trip, which included stops in Orlando, Philadelphia, his hometown of Charlotte, Manhattan and Brooklyn, Curry’s fans came out and made their voices heard. And Curry tried not to disappoint, averaging 34.8 points and 7.8 assists while hitting 32 3-pointers during that span. He is 11 3-pointers away from extending his record of most 3-pointers made in a career to 4,000.
“Steph just had an incredible trip, put on a show in every city,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “What he does, it’s amazing. Just the show that he puts on, the joy that he brings to so many fans who are coming to see him play in all these different cities. Every fan base loves Steph and there’s a reason he’s an incredible performer.”
This one in Brooklyn, though, required a big comeback. The Nets opened the game with a 27-5 lead. But ever since the Warriors acquired Butler, Golden State has been playing with so much confidence.
It completed its second comeback from a deficit of 20 or greater with Butler in the lineup. Before the Butler trade, the Warriors went 1-10 when trailing by 20 or more.
With Butler in the lineup, the Warriors are 10-1 and 35-28 overall. They are in sixth place in the Western Conference standings and three games behind fifth-place Houston. Curry has been revitalized by the addition of Butler, averaging 30.3 points on 51-44-90 shooting splits since Butler’s Warriors’ debut on Feb. 8, according to ESPN Research.
And the highlight shots just keep coming. Curry said he does not practice the turnaround 3-pointer from the logo that he hit in Brooklyn. He admitted he was a little surprised.
“That one, it’s not in the practice routine,” Curry said. “But you have an idea of where you are on the court and as weird as it might sound, it was kind of a rhythm shot because you don’t really have any other thought other than just try to get it off.
“It did surprise me though. That’s why I just ran to the locker room.”
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Jordyn Woods reveals friend died of cancer as boyfriend Karl-Anthony Towns rejoins Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns’ girlfriend Jordyn Woods attended the funeral of a close friend who lost her battle to breast cancer Wednesday, the model shared in a note posted to her Instagram Story.
Towns, who is not dealing with a significant injury, missed the Knicks’ 114-102 loss to the Warriors on Tuesday for unspecified personal reasons.
“Thank you for all of your prayers and concern,” Woods, 27, wrote Thursday.
“I had to bury one of the closet people to me yesterday after she lost her battle to breast cancer. Life isn’t always fair. She will be missed tremendously.”
Towns missed his sixth game this season when he sat out Tuesday’s setback at MSG, with coach Tom Thibodeau saying the big man “needed some time.”
Woods posted a message Tuesday that now seems connected to the tragic death of her friend.
“F–k cancer,” Woods wrote on X on Tuesday.
Towns, 29, has yet to address the situation publicly.
He will return to the lineup when the Knicks begins their West coast roadtrip against the Lakers on Thursday, as reported by The Post’s Stefan Bondy.
What do you think? Be the first to comment.
The five-time NBA All-Star big man is averaging 24.5 points and 13.4 rebounds this season.
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Karl-Anthony Towns Returns to Knicks After Attending Funeral of Family Friend Who Died of Breast Cancer: ‘Had to Be There’
The NBA star took time off after his girlfriend Jordyn Woods’ Aunt Sarah died of breast cancer
JUSTIN CASTERLINE/GETTY
Karl-Anthony Towns is returning to the basketball court after taking time off to attend the funeral of a family friend.
“This is one of those moments where I had to be there for my family and be there for the kids that lost somebody really special to them,” the 29-year-old New York Knicks player said Thursday, March 6, as he joined his team in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers, the New York Post reported.
The NBA player also shared a photo of the late family friend, Sarah Holtzman, on his Instagram Stories earlier in the day.
JUSTIN CASTERLINE/GETTY
In the picture, he and Holtzman smiled as they posed together, with her holding up one of his autographed jerseys.
Towns’ girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, reposted the image.
Over on her Instagram account, the 27-year-old model shared a tribute, referring to Holtzman as her aunt.
“My guardian angels 🤍🕊️,” the television personality captioned a carousel that began with a photo of her late father, John Woods, sitting with Holtzman.
John died of cancer in 2017.
“I’ve had some time to sit with this and can’t seem to find the words to do you justice. Aunt Sarah wouldn’t want us to feel sorry she would want us to celebrate her life. Love you forever and thank you all for your messages,” Jordyn concluded.
Other photos in her post showed her and Holtzman smiling as she sat on Holtzman’s lap as a baby. Two other photos showed Holtzman holding her.
“F— Cancer,” Jordyn tweeted two days before Towns’ return to the basketball court.
In a follow-up post on X Thursday morning, she wrote, “Thank you for all of your prayers and concern. I had to bury one of the closest people to me yesterday after she lost her battle to breast cancer. Life isn’t always fair. She will be missed tremendously.”
RICKY VIGIL M/GETTY
Jordyn and Towns began dating in 2020 after years of being friends.
During a September 2020 interview with Extra to discuss her upcoming BET film, Trigger, she told the outlet that she and Towns bonded over both losing a parent.
Recalling how the Knicks star lost his mother to COVID-19 in April of that year, Jordyn said they ″connected about losing a parent at a very young age.″
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″So, it was a very organic relationship that we’d been best friends for a while,” she said.
Earlier in the interview she told Extra, ″I just think that when you find the right one, you can learn even more about yourself. It’s about learning to evolve with someone. The right person will bring a lot out of you.”
