If you are reading this, chances are you know by now that one, Karl-Anthony Towns has been underperforming and that he’s been floated around as a potential trade candidate, and two, the Knicks have been targeting Giannis Antetokounmpo for quite some time now. Given those two truths, the contracts of the two players, and the star power of the two names, it made perfect sense for rumors of a potential deal to start swirling. But when Towns had heard said rumors last offseason, apparently, the big man wasn’t too thrilled.
According to [The Athletic’s Sam Amick](https://x.com/sam_amick), [Towns was upset about the Knicks inquiring about a potential trade](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7006138/2026/01/29/giannis-antetokounmpo-trade-rumors-bucks-warriors-knicks/), and that he, to this day, still holds hard feelings towards the team’s front office. It’s easy for fans to sit on their comfortable couches and critique players for having real emotions. Many times, fans become so acclimated to seeing these god-like athletes do the unimaginable that they often forget that behind their seven-foot stature, 40-inch vertical, and hand-eye coordination that only the .1% of the world could even come close to, lies a human just like every single one of you reading this.
Is it as difficult as having multiple jobs, or living paycheck to paycheck, or being a single parent, or having a job where you routinely lay your lives on the line? Not even close. But that doesn’t mean that players don’t or can’t have emotions, even when it is a “part of the business” or even if it’s a team trading for a player that is universally believed to be significantly better than you.
That isn’t to say that Town also can or should let his feelings dictate his play. But it does serve as not only a reminder that players do indeed have players, regardless of whether you want to believe it or not, but also a potential explanation for why the big man has struggled so much this season. The former Kentucky Wildcat, and Minnesota Timberwolf is averaging just averaging just 20.2PPG, which would be the lowest of his career since his rookie season, and is shooting just 46.2% of his career, which would be the lowest mark of his career.
Towns, who’s been known as being an emotional person (nothing wrong with that by the way), isn’t just dealing with having to learn a new system. He’s doing so while sacrificing personal stats, and doing so just months after there were consistent rumors of him being shipped away despite being a flawed, yet pivotal part of a Knicks team that reached its first conference finals in over two decades.
Assuming this is all true, the question now becomes, if Towns is still a Knick after the February 5th deadline, does it continue to bother him, or can he lock back in mentally and get back to being the player the Knicks had last year?