By ‘LLERO Editors
How do you top representing your country on their national team, playing for college royalty and going first in the NBA draft all before you’re old enough to have a beer? Well if you’re Karl-Anthony Towns you go out and win NBA Rookie of the Year.
Hailed as the best prospect since LeBron James, it may seem as if Towns was destined for basketball greatness. Raised in Piscataway, New Jersey, Karl-Anthony got his whistle wet for the game from his father, Karl Towns Sr., who played basketball for Monmouth University and coached the basketball team at Piscataway Technical High School, where Towns Jr., practiced with the junior varsity team as a mere fifth grader.
The practice clearly paid off. During his high school years at St. Joseph’s High School, Towns led his team to state titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014. On two occasions having quadruple-double games. Yes, double figures, in scoring, rebounds, assists and blocked shots. Talk about a one-man army. Then at the tender age of 16, the seven-foot center made the Dominican National Team, which led to his recruitment by college basketball elite coach John Calipari at the University of Kentucky. Yet, after just one year at Kentucky, Towns opted to try his hand at the NBA. A move considered by many to be quite a risk, especially for a player with just one year of college ball under his belt.