On this episode of Actually Me, Minnesota Timberwolves' Center Karl Anthony Towns goes undercover on the Internet and responds to real comments from Reddit, YouTube, Twitter and more.
Why does he play Center instead of Forward?
What is his 3-pt percentage?
Who is his biggest inspiration?
- What's up guys, it's Karl-Anthony Towns,and I'm going undercover on the internet.[upbeat music]This is actually me.First up, Quora.Could a starting five of Ben Simmons,Giannis Antetokounmpo, maybe one of the only peoplewho knows how to say it correctly,LeBron James, Karl-Anthony Towns,they forgot a dash in myname, how disrespectful,Kristaps Porzingis take down the Warriors?Well, yeah.
[laughs]What the hell?Damn power team right there.
[laughs]Why does Karl-AnthonyTowns play center insteadof power forward?'Cause I want to.Submit.Next up, Wikipedia.It's actually me.He studied kinesiology inhis one year at Kentuckyand hopes to become a doctorafter his basketball career.That is true, I wantedto be in kinesiology.My mother, being in the medicalfield, gave me a lot of lovefor the medical field, and I love sports,and I think kinesiologywas great for me tobe in the medical fieldbut stay in sports andto be able to know how to move better,not only for my clients but for myself,helps life around for everybody.Towns graduated with ahigh school GPA of 3.96on a 4.5 scale, I did.I was always really good in school.I mean, it's not that hard, Ilove when I hear people say,you know, they're struggling in school.I'm like, well, you couldn'tjust do the homework?Like, it's the simplest thing.If you do the homework, you'realready on a great route.I was just a kid who just understood whatmy responsibilities were.I took AP classes, soobviously that's why I havea 4.5 scale to work with and, you know,I just dominated in the classroom as wellon the basketball court.Next up, Reddit.Devin Booker, KarlAnthony-Towns, D'Angelo Russell,my brothers, super team,where could it happen?Preferably for me, it wouldbe in Timberwolves so,it would be in Minnesota,hopefully, one day.I'm gonna speak it into existence.I don't know if it'llhappen but I want it to.Next, as a freshman in high school,Karl-Anthony Townsinterviewed Kevin Durant.So, lookin' at that picture,KAT was as tall as KDwhen he was a freshman in high school.I was 6'10" and a half as a freshman,coming in to St.
Joe'sMetuchen, dominated New Jerseyfor three years.Forget all that, I'mlookin' at my haircut,what happened, now I gotdreads and beard and,man, my swag's through the roof.I was low key, I was lookin'kinda crusty real quickfor a second, you know,went through my uglyduckling stage already.Karl-Anthony Towns onwhat it would take for himnot to play.I would have to not be able to walk.It would be a lot, I would notbe able to walk on both legs.If I could walk on one,oh, damn sure I'm playing.He hasn't missed a game sincemiddle school, is this true?Of course it's true.
[scoffs]I haven't missed a game for anything.There was one game in middle school,I can even tell you the game,I was supposed to beplaying at Edison Job Corpsin New Jersey, and I wentto the game, I had the flu,and I had bad flu.I didn't have the regular flu, no,I had the extra strength flu.I showed up, I looked like crap.So, I'm waiting for our game to start,there was a game in front of us.I fell asleep in the stands.I remember waking up,it was the third quarterof my game.
[laughs]I rushed out, bad flu and all,and my dad just stopped me,he's like, "Listen Karl,I'm not gonna let you play,"it's not that serious, like, you're sick,"just take it easy on yourself."So, other than my fathernot letting me play,I haven't missed a gamesince until this year,I got in a car accidentand got hit by a truck.I was ready to play, team was like, no.In a purely hypothetical situation,which player would be a better fitfor the Golden State Warriors,Rudy Gobert or Karl-Anthony Towns?It would be me.Not a knock on him, justI feel like they're justone of the best three pointshooting teams to everbe assembled and to put me on that teamwith my ability to shoot, I think that,it's gonna be prettyhard to guard everybody.Next up is Facebook.Man, who uses Facebook anymore?It's like the MySpace of nowadays.Who throws the best lobson the T Wolves team?[laughs] Damn sure ain'tAndrew Wiggins.
[laughs]He ain't throwin' no lobs,his lob game is stupid,it's just bad.I'd probably Jeff Teague.I mean, he is our point guard, so...Up next is YouTube, oneof my favorite places.You may not believe it,but it's actually me.What's your favorite animepersonage, is that right?- [Off Camera Man] Personage.- Personage, wow, this manreally did well on the SAT.I'm always a Dragon BallZ fan, first and foremost.I'll definitely say Goku, I mean,everyone wants to be like Goku.Kat, who was your favoriteplayer growing up,or actually he said frowning up.Growing up my favorite player, K.D.Also, I mean, the biggestinspiration to my game,I wear the number 32 becauseone, my father wore itand any son wants to be like his dad,especially who my fatherwas and how widelyaccepted and recognized hewas in my neighborhood andalso the second part for thenumber 32 is I wanted to playlike Magic Johnson so bad.Prime Time, making his teammates better,could score, could do it all.So yeah, growing up my favoriteplayer was obviously K.D.,big respect to him, butbiggest inspirationswere my father and Magic Johnson,that's why I wear the number 32.Next up, Instagram, dangerous site.Kat to Shanghai Sharks confirmed.I may be wrong, but...Doesn't Stephon Marburycoach them, or that Beijing?Quick, Google check.Does the Timberwolveslegend associate himselfwith that team?- [Off Camera Man] I'mnot seeing it on there.- Nope, welp, no.
[laughs]No, I will not be playing then.What would you do if KobeBryant challenged youto win the MVP this year?I mean, I don't need him to challenge me,I go out there and try to win and playat a MVP level every single night, so.Obviously the GOAT, like, Kobe telling yousomething like that,obviously, is, you know,motivation, determination,but MVP, whatever,that's cool, but I'm trying to win games.[laughs] I like this question.Are you growing dreads?You would look awesome with them.I am, I mean, kind of.Just trying something new,I've always wanted to do this.I talked to Derrick Rose alllast season about doing it,kinda was telling me nah, let'sjust wait 'til the summer,really give it a try.Soon as summer came aroundand vacation started,be poppin' up in mymind, oh you best believethat dreads were in my mind so,I got the dreads and I've beenreally enjoying them a lot.I'm thinking about takingthem into the next season,so dreads, braids, we'll see.Next up is Twitter, tweet tweet.How did Karl-Anthony Towns end upin a Katy Perry music video?It's very simple, I justgot a call from Katy Perryand her people saying,"Hey, are you around tobe in a music video?"I said, "Yeah, I'm notdoing anything tonight."If you want me to go indepth and tell you somethingcrazy like, oh yeah, Iwas here at Kiff's Treatsand saw Katy Perry and said,"Hey, I want to be in a music video."Nope, that didn't happen.[bird tweeting]Can we expect a featureon the Stizz album?Man, shout out to CousinStizz, Beantown's finest.I don't know if the people areready for all those thrills.That's a lot of thrills to give out.Karl-Anthony Towns has a YouTube channeland I didn't know until now?Me and Chucky did YouTubebecause I wanted to be able toexpress a little moreof myself to the fans,make myself more open throughthese videos and vlogsand skits and whatever the case it is.It's been awesome justto be able to reallybe creative in a spacethat I've always wanted toreally do stuff in and make content for.We got a lot of things in the pipeline sosubscribe to the YouTubechannel, hit that bell,make you sure you do itbecause if you don't,you may be just late.How does anyone stop Karl-Anthony Towns?[Beep] I'm trying to find out myselfto give some people answers, but...Boom.KAT, where or who didyou learn about energyand frequencies from?I think life teaches youa lot, and I feel thatbeing around my sister, myfamily, my closest friends,I just always felt thatenergy and frequencies tellmore than anything.You know, through life I felt that.I've learned, you know, howto read people's energiesand their frequencies andthrough just life experiencesand learning different things and beingin different situations andpeople always could lie to you, you know,but the energy never lies.You can't duplicate, you can't replicate,you can't tell false energy to anybody.How the hell doesKarl-Anthony Towns shoot 43%from three point range?That's impressive.You know, I think one ofthe biggest things I had toget used to was just learning, you know,the depth perception ofseeing the three point lineand shooting it that far.Obviously, after myfirst year really gettingmy feet wet in the NBA,really understanding whatI could and could not do,I just expanded my gameand found out little ways Icould help the team betterfrom an offensive standpoint andfrom the skillset standpointand the three was one of those.[laughs] All right, so back in the dayI did a KitKat commercial,and how many KitKat barsdid you eat while filming?I ate...Think I ate, I ate one.I think I ate one or two,it was one or two but,man, it was good.Karl-Anthony Towns out heredoing hella commercials.I guess...brands and people love the kid.I think it's more about mycharacter more than justmy skill, you know, Ijust represent myselfin the best way possible,and I think that peoplereally respect that.Does music have any influence in your gameor your life?Do you play like, musical instruments?I saw your reaction toLuke Bryan, so what isyour favorite type of musicto warm up to, party to?I mean, music is a biginfluence in my life,something that reallypropels me in workoutsand in life and reallygiving me the opportunity toreally feel motivated.Do you play any musical instruments?I used to play theflute, guitar, and piano.My favorite type of music tolisten to is always gonna behip hop, R&B, alternate, traditional folk,shout out to Passenger, youknow, really love their music.Party to, I mean, aparty is whatever it is.I mean, there's a video of me singingwith Travis Scott "We AreYoung" in the club so,it was a lot of fun.What advice would you giveto young Hispanics that aretrying to make it to the NBA?Listen...Especially for the Dominicanos out thereand the Hispanics, youknow, don't ever letyour surroundings at themoment be what you feelyour limits are.You can make it out from anywhere,and we're in the best agefor Hispanics, you know.We got a lot of peopleputting it on for our cultureand secondly, we're ina digital age, you know.Talent will be foundanywhere in the world,and for you to be in thisage is a huge blessingand I think that you justneed to take over, you know,gotta do what you need to do.Take care of your grades, first of all,because if you don't take care of that,nothing's gonna get done, and secondly,you know, put the work in.You know, if you want anything in life,you gotta put the work in.No one's gonna give you achance to be in the NBA,hell, be in college.So, you gotta go out thereand you gotta put the work in,you gotta do the little things.That's it for me.I don't got no morequestions, so shout outto GQ Sports and I'm signing off.