Karl-Anthony Towns shared his first NBA title with Knicks legend Patrick Ewing.
The two met on the Frost Bank Center court in San Antonio after New York won Game 5 because Towns said he knew how much the Knicks’ first championship in 53 years meant to Ewing, a legend of the team.
“It was so amazing to see how this win healed so many people in New York, fan-wise and even to the alumni, and Patrick,” Towns said on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday.
“When I hugged Patrick, it was like he finally was able to exhale and see a trophy in a Knicks jersey.”
Ewing spent 15 seasons with the Knicks and made the playoffs 13 times and the Finals twice.
He was one win away from beating the Rockets in 1994, but the Knicks lost Games 6 and 7. In 1999, he was similarly close but tore his Achilles tendon in the Eastern Conference finals and missed the championship series, which the Spurs eventually won.
Ewing, a Hall of Famer, was named a Knicks basketball ambassador in 2024.
“To finally be able to see that Larry O’Brien in [Ewing’s] hands and not in Michael Jordan’s and all these other people’s hands, I mean, there was just so much healing that I was stunned,” Towns added.
“I didn’t realize how impactful it really is, and I still honestly don’t think I understand the true magnitude of what we’ve done.”
Towns was born in Edison, New Jersey, about 30 miles from New York City, and grew up a Knicks fan due to Jeremy Lin.
He said it meant a lot to him to see the impact the win had on the fans and to be a part of a memory the kids in New York will carry with them.
“You never realize a little kid watched the Knicks play, win a championship with his father, and now he’s the one with his son celebrating the same moment that him and his father,” Towns said.