Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Mutual respect from Towns and Garnett

Future Hall-of-Famer and former Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett still speaks highly of former pupil Karl-Anthony Towns, and the feeling is mutual from KAT to KG.

See, fans? It isn’t all bad in Minnesota Timberwolves world.

Okay, so Kevin Garnett waxing poetic about Karl-Anthony Towns’ potential and KAT reciprocating with props for KG’s mentor-ship isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, and it’s not as real as the disaster that is the ever-changing Jimmy Butler saga.

Brandon Robinson of Basketball Society Online, perhaps better known as Scoop B on Twitter, spoke with both Garnett and Towns over the weekend, and Towns mentioned that he had lunch with Garnett last week.

Karl Towns, Sr. was on Scoop B’s podcast earlier in the summer and glowed about the relationship between his son and The Big Ticket. Now, it was KAT’s turn to talk about KG.

"[Towns] considers “The Big Ticket” family. “I thank the stars above me and I thank God,” said Towns.“I have great mentors and such great family and people I call family and he’s just one of ‘em. I see him as nothing but a first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players to ever play. I see myself chasing him down.”"

Here’s what Garnett had to say about Towns, in part:

"“I see a lot of similarities in Karl to myself … If I could ever be an inspiration and lead him into that, I’ve always wanted to be that. And the fact that he took heed and took some of the advice I gave him is more than honorable, so it’s dope.”"

It’s cool to see the two still speaking positively about one another. Of course, they no doubt had a chance to commiserate about one Tom Thibodeau as well. Remember, Garnett was encouraged into a buyout shortly after Thibodeau took over in Minnesota despite reportedly planning to play for one more season.

As for Towns, his issues with Thibodeau have been reported far and wide throughout the summer.

Towns also spoke about former MVP and current Wolves backup guard Derrick Rose. This came shortly after Garnett said he would start Rose at point guard if he were coaching the Wolves. (Uhhh….)

Also at the link are comments from former Timberwolf and current free agent Jamal Crawford about how dominant Rose apparently was in practice for the Wolves after signing last spring, for whatever that’s worth.

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled Jimmy Butler-centric programming…