Draymond Green Falsely Stated Karl-Anthony Towns Ducked Matchup With Jimmy Butler
On Tuesday, New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns missed his team’s 114–102 loss to the Golden State Warriors while his girlfriend—model Jordyn Woods—mourned a friend’s death from breast cancer.
To apparently oblivious Warriors forward Draymond Green, this was the perfect opportunity to take a swipe at Towns’s basketball ability during his podcast Wednesday.
“Some would say he didn’t play because [Golden State forward] Jimmy [Butler] was in the building,” Green said. “They said KAT ain’t play because Jimmy came to town.”
Green suggested he talked to Towns’s father, Karl Towns Sr., at Tuesday evening’s contest, but bizarrely gave no hint that he’d heard why Towns missed the game.
The clip appears to have been edited out of The Draymond Green Show after the Warriors forward received backlash online due to the mistake.
Butler and Towns were teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2018 to ’19 (Green at least got that much correct), and Butler’s tenure with the Timberwolves ended explosively.
However, Towns has shown no sign of avoiding Butler in the years since—he dropped 44 points on Butler’s Miami Heat on Oct. 30, for instance. Either way, the statement was a foolish one from one of the NBA’s most durable provocateurs.
Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .
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Draymond Green’s Karl-Anthony Towns comments, explained: Why Warriors star is receiving backlash for KAT-Jimmy Butler take
Draymond Green Faces Backlash for False Rumor About Knicks Star
Draymond Green is getting called out for spreading an uninformed and unsubstantiated rumor about New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns missed the Knicks 114-102 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. Green hinted on his podcast — “The Draymond Green Show” — that KAT skipped the game because he didn’t want to go head-to-head with his former teammate, Jimmy Butler.
Butler was recently traded to the Warriors. Butler and Towns had a well-documented falling out when they were teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves. The tension stemmed from Butler’s ultra-competitive mentality clashing with Towns’ perceived lack of toughness and leadership.
Tensions boiled over during a heated practice after Butler had requested a trade. He returned to practice and dominated a scrimmage using backups against Minnesota’s starters, including Towns.
Because of their history, Green believed Towns was trying to dodge a showdown with Butler. The Knicks big man was listed as out for personal reasons.
“Some will say he didn’t play because maybe because Jimmy was in the building,” Green said. “They said KAT didn’t play because Jimmy came into town. Him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota. I don’t know what was hurt. I didn’t look that deep into it to see what his injury was.”
The rumor gained some steam, with Chris Broussard repeating it on FS1’s “First Things First.”
“There’s a rumor out there. Draymond said it on his podcast,” Broussard said. “Draymond said the word is he didn’t want to play against Jimmy Butler.”
Once the clip circulated, numerous insiders weighed in, stepping up to defend Towns.
“Draymond ignorantly/maliciously suggests KAT was ducking Jimmy Butler on Tuesday. 1. KAT missed the game to comfort his girlfriend after her aunt died from cancer. 2. KAT played Butler in Miami earlier this season and hung 44 points on the Heat. Fellow players need to call out idiots like Draymond for this (expletive),” Tommy Beer of Knicks Centric wrote on X.
Ian Begley of SNY also weighed in.
“Draymond Green suggests on his podcast that Karl-Anthony Towns missed Tuesday’s game vs GSW because he wanted to avoid Jimmy Butler. Green casually throwing this out there on his platform without researching the situation is extremely irresponsible,” Begley said.
It’s not the first time Green has publicly attacked Towns. In a message on X earlier this season, he criticized Towns’ defensive effort against Nikola Jokic, saying he didn’t have the “mental edge.” The Knicks won the game against the Nuggets and Jokic was held to 17 points.
Since their breakup, Towns has addressed his “beef” with Butler at various points. They’re not buddy-buddy, but there seems to be a level of respect.
“We had our differences, but we’ve seen each other at All-Stars and we’ve talked,” Towns said in 2023. “I’ve asked how his family was; he’s asked how my family was. I think we’re at a cool spot.”
Towns has thrived in New York since arriving via trade in October. He was named an All-Star starter, averaging 24.5 points and 13.4 rebounds this season.
J.R. DeGroote covers the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com. He graduated from Arizona State and has decades of experience in digital media with previous stops at SBNation and Bleacher Report. He has won multiple state, regional and national honors for sports reporting and photography. More about J.R. DeGroote
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