Tim Connelly went to KAT's house to inform him he was being traded
Former Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns was told in a face-to-face conversation that he was being traded to the New York Knicks.
Towns, who was the centerpiece of a late-September blockbuster trade with the Knicks, told the Roommates Show that he was at home when Wolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly came to his house to inform him of the trade.
"I didn't get called. Tim told me to my face that I was traded," KAT told the Roommates Show, which is hosted by his current teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.
Brunson and the other hosts of the show appeared surprised by the news, but credited Connelly for breaking the news in person, offering up a "respect."
"It was gangsta. I ain't gonna lie," KAT continued. "He came to my house. I respect it. Honestly, it's a tough situation, regardless of what was going to happen. The fact that it happened that way, I gotta give him respect. It was me, three of my closest friends and my pops. So, shout out to him. He came to my house, by himself with five dudes there who could have just started spazzing out and crashed out. So, I gotta give him respect for that, for sure."
In the aftermath of the trade, Connelly has stated he didn't take the decision to trade a franchise player lightly. Connelly even said "the whole idea of trading people, I think, is pretty gross and weird."
Towns said he found out he was traded four minutes before NBA insider Shams Charania broke the news on social media.
"By the time the shock had wore off, Shams had already tweeted," said Towns.
Towns, who had spent his entire career in Minnesota since being taken No. 1 overall in the 2015 draft, said he thought he would spend his whole career there.
"I thought I was going to retire there," Towns said. "I thought it was going to be the place I call home for my whole career, and then after. But my former employer did not agree with that ideology I had. It is what it is."