NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 4, 2026

Karl-Anthony Towns

New York Knicks

Practice Day

Q. I don't know if you heard this, but in Brazil the Knicks are kind of a lucky charm because when they went to the Finals in the '70s, Brazil won. In '94, Brazil won. Now here you are and it's the World Cup. What are your plans on that, and do you plan on watching soccer games between the Finals?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: Yeah, for sure. We've got a lot of soccer fans on our team, me included. After it's all said and done, I'm actually going to go, so I'll be excited to be at the World Cup, as well.

Q. Karl, when you're in a position like you are right now, how do you walk that line between wanting to do what you do best to help your team versus not overreaching, not losing your grounding, and sometimes it won't be on you?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: That's a great question. It comes with experience. I've been in playoff series where I've done too much, and it was the detriment to the team, and I've been in playoff series where I've done too little, and it was a detriment to the team.

It's a fine line. It comes with experience where you learn what truly is best for the team and being able to find that balance of being aggressive and impacting the game with your skill set, but also utilizing that skill set to make others better. Something that experience has taught me. I think right now, I'm doing the best I've done at it.

Q. What type of content do you like to make, and what type of content can we look forward to in the future?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: That's a good question. I'm enjoying right now the sports card with Topps and everybody, and just making some dope sports card content is kind of right now what I love to do. It's a passion of mine. It's really something that I love to do. It's my first job before the NBA called, so it's pretty good to get back to my first job.

Other than that, I just like to make cinematic experiences of my life and ways of kind of being creative and showing vlogs and stuff like that. So that's why the content is always not so consistent. I can't keep up with y'all in the every day, every week type of things. But when I do release content, it's with purpose.

Q. I'm sure you've seen the clips of the chaos outside of MSG, and it's only been Game 1. I know the job is not even close to finished, but if you guys are able to win three more games and close it out at the Garden, is there a world or is there a chance where a Karl-Anthony Towns makes an appearance on 7th Avenue?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: Maybe a picture of me. I don't know. I pray for the NYPD.

It's very funny. But it shows the love our fans have for us and the passion that they have. I've got to give a shout-out, too, to the NYPD, to all those men and women out there that are not only protecting everybody, but on the flip side, as well, in my personal experience who are huge fans of the Knicks and support the Knicks fans in their ability to show how much they love the Knicks and being as lenient as possible without causing chaos. So shout-out to the men and women of the NYPD.

Q. Jalen was just talking in the other room about your defense during the postseason. What have you seen, getting that assignment yesterday of Wemby and I think he was 2 for 11 with you as the primary defender, what your approach was. Have you seen your level raise in the postseason, whether it's the mental part of it or the physical part of it?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: Like I've said to you and everybody, I just want to impact winning. Whatever the team needs me to do to impact winning and to help us get over the hump and get that win on that night, I'm willing to do.

Last night was a night where a lot of things happened. Jalen got hurt, changed my role. Jalen came back, I had to change my role again. Throughout the game you're changing your role three, four times. But whatever my role is, I've got to be the best at it and impact winning.

I thought last night I did a good job of whatever my role was called to be, and I wanted to be a star in that role.

Q. The difference between leaving here at 1-1 and 2-0 knowing they've come back in a few series already, how important is it to not give them any hope or momentum or putting your foot down here and taking that 2-0 lead?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: For me, I don't think of anything like that, the 1-1, 2-0. I just think it's 0-0. The next game is the most important game of the year, so just continue to stay in the present, not worry about what the future may look like, not worry about what we've done in the past. Just cancel all that out and just worry about the present. Tomorrow when we step on the court should be the same determination, desperation, energy level and physicality needed for a game win.

Q. [Question from Derik Queen] What's some advice to someone that is similar to you, like as a big man, guard skills and stuff, rookie big, just trying to learn? What advice do you have for me?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: I mean, you are already superbly talented. I've seen it firsthand.

I think for me, it would just be more about just locking in on the film, just consistently working hard, especially early in your career, just never leave the gym, just be infatuated with the work.

I know it's weird, but JB has it on his shirts and stuff, but the magic really is in the work and just utilizing that work to get more comfortable with the game. I think with the more work you put in, the more time you use understanding your teammates, where they like the ball, where they like to excel, where their best shots are percentage-wise and stuff like that, you give yourself the chance to have the game slow down. And with experience, the game slows down tremendously.

The real gift about experience is you'll find ways to accomplish the same goal and get the stats with using way less energy. With that, that's when experience really kicks in, and that's when it's beauty.

Q. You are reaching another level as a player, like more all-around player, with the defense, passing the ball, rebounds, all of that. Can you take us through the process and the work that you put in to understand that and reach this level as a player where you can do a lot of things?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: Yeah, just consistently working on my game. No days off. Always consistently finding something to do to take my game to the next level. On the days you call off days, it's a lot of treatment, making sure my body is able to do the thing you just said.

Even last night after the game, right after, we got to a two-and-a-half-hour treatment session to just get right for the next game. The work never stops. When the cameras stop rolling and there ain't no NBA trophy around, no basketball to dribble, you find another way to give yourself an edge.

Q. Josh, kind of a rough start to the game yesterday, picked up three quick fouls, short minutes in the first half. Anything said in the locker room about what you guys needed from him, or at this point you know he's going to be able to come through on the back end?

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS: Yeah, you know what Josh is going to do. He's going to play hard. He's going to be a dawg. He's going to go out there and find a way to get the job done. He's going to do it at a high energy level and with a lot of physicality and determination. You never want to tell Josh to not do something.

I feel like for us, we adjusted, we stayed together. We're a team.

We understand what Josh is going to do. When the game came down to it and you look at the stat sheet, he led us in rebounds, and it was something that just came with his pure effort. His ability to push the pace for us and be impactful in so many other ways than needing to score the ball is a huge reason why we're here in the NBA Finals.