Karl-Anthony Towns’ Most ‘Painful Game’ Isn’t From the NBA

In his nine seasons in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns has experienced several brutal losses in the regular season and the playoffs. However, none has stung as much as the Kentucky Wildcats’ loss to the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four of the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.

During an appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay, the host brought up that loss and asked Towns about his memory of it. The Knicks star revealed he has never rewatched the game and claimed the defeat haunts him to this day. He said,

“Yeah, that game still hurts. I still haven’t watched it, I can’t. It’s a painful memory I think we both have. As professionals…that game probably hurts the most.”

The Wildcats were on a historic run in the 2014-15 season. They started the year 34-0, won the SEC Tournament, and were the heavy favorites to win the national title. They thrashed their opponents in the first three games of the NCAA Tournament and survived a scare against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Elite 8 stage to set up a Final Four clash against the Badgers.

The game was tied at halftime, but Wisconsin started pulling away in the second half. Despite Towns and Kentucky’s best efforts, they couldn’t mount a comeback and their bid to become only the fifth program and the first in 39 years to win the National Championship with an undefeated record ended in the semifinal.

Winning and losing are part of the game for any athlete. KAT has had several moments in his career where he put up a great performance, either throughout the season or in a particular game. Despite his efforts, he has faced defeats.

Some of the most stinging losses in Karl-Anthony Towns’s career

KAT has been in the league since 2015. During that time, he has gone through several ups and downs but overall he has been a dependable player for the Timberwolves. While it’s undeniable that losing the Conference Finals last season would rank very high on the list, there are some games where KAT was exceptional but couldn’t get his team to victory.

On 22nd January 2024, Towns scored a career-high 62 points in a game against the Charlotte Hornets. He also had eight rebounds and two assists and shot 60% from the field and 66.7% from the three-point line. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to secure a win for his team, as the Hornets beat them 128-125, making his best-scoring performance a bittersweet memory.

KAT is like a rebounding machine on the floor. He has registered 20 or more rebounds in a game 14 times in his career. Usually, a performance like that almost guarantees a win. However, in February 2017, when he had 22 rebounds against the Rockets, his team was outperformed and beaten by 12 points.

On another occasion in 2018, he had 23 rebounds against the Celtics but his team lost that game 84-91.