By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Karl-Anthony Towns will be giving back to his roots after announcing his plans to build a state-of-the-art basketball training facility in the Dominican Republic.
Towns, who played the majority of his basketball career in the US after suiting up for Kentucky during his college years before getting drafted into the NBA by Minnesota, thought that this was the perfect time to pay tribute to his late mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, and her homeland.
According to Towns, he will be bringing a top-notch hoops facility that will cater the next generation of basketball stars in the Dominican Republic.
Perks of the future basketball academy attendees are access to formal coaching, physical therapy sessions for recovery, classroom floors, and meeting areas.
Towns revealed that the groundbreaking ceremony in Santiago, Dominican Republic, will take place next year, and the estimated completion time of the facility will be in 2026.
“I’ve been very fortunate to live the American dream. But for me, having a different set of eyes, seeing it through my mother’s eyes and what she had to do to really even feel like an American, I wanted to bring the resources that we have here to there and give kids the opportunity to have the best equipment and the best chances possible to not only make money for their family but also pursue their dreams,” said Towns.
Currently, Towns is getting in shape as the upcoming 2024-2025 NBA season will kick off in nearly a month on October 23, 2024.
They will immediately be put to the test as they are set to headline the NBA tip-off schedule, with the Timberwolves going up against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Towns finally got past the NBA Playoff hump last year, when they were able to clinch a seat in the NBA Western Conference Finals after eliminating the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets.
However, Towns and Anthony Edwards had no answers to Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic as the 1-2 punch booted them out of the Playoffs in just five games to arrange an NBA Finals matchup with the Boston Celtics.
This season, the Timberwolves aim to topple their performance last year with their core of Rudy Gobert, Edwards, Towns, Mike Conley, and Naz Reid still intact for another playoff run.
