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The New York Knicks won Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Wednesday night, beating the San Antonio Spurs 105-95. The Knicks trailed by 14 points in the second half before closing the game on an 11-0 run.
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks’ big man Karl-Anthony Towns was right there with him when it mattered most.
KAT finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds. He defended Victor Wembanyama and anchored the interior. After the game, Towns drew attention when he admitted the experience made him feel like a kid again.
After the final buzzer, Towns described a sensation that had been building all day. It was something he hadn’t quite felt since he was a teenager grinding through weekend AAU circuits in New Jersey.
Jan 27, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
“I felt really confident about today, I felt good,” Towns said. “I felt like a kid. It was just fun out here. This is something that as a kid you always dream about. You always hope to be an NBA player, let alone to be in the NBA Finals. All day, it was just a weird feeling. It felt like I was getting ready to play my Saturday AAU games and my Sunday AAU games. In a way, it felt like I was seeing her in the stands.”
That “her” is Jacqueline Cruz-Towns — KAT’s mother, the person who was always his loudest voice in any arena. Her routine was always sitting in the same spot and cheering for him to hear her over the crowd. She died six years ago, on April 13, 2020, at age 59, from COVID-19 complications.
Towns has often spoken about how difficult it has been to play without his mother, noting that his greatest joy was watching his family celebrate his success from the baseline. On Wednesday, during his first career NBA Finals game, those old memories again came into his brain again.
Despite matching up against DPOY Wembanyama on basketball’s biggest stage, Towns felt like a kid playing in weekend AAU tournaments again. He described the feeling as a calming, grounding peace rather than overwhelming pressure, adding that sensing her presence in the arena was “really comforting.”
KAT grew up in Piscataway, New Jersey and his late mother was a die-hard Knicks fan who fell in love with the franchise and Madison Square Garden after immigrating from the Dominican Republic. After the trade took place in 2024, New York brought him back to the franchise she loved.
Towns is funding a state-of-the-art youth basketball facility in Santiago, which is his mother’s birthplace. While explaining the project, he said, “They gave my mother life. It’s only right I give them mine.”
Now he’s in the Finals, playing for the franchise his mother loved, in the city where he grew up watching them. And according to KAT, she was there for Game 1.
Continue reading...
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks’ big man Karl-Anthony Towns was right there with him when it mattered most.
KAT finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds. He defended Victor Wembanyama and anchored the interior. After the game, Towns drew attention when he admitted the experience made him feel like a kid again.
Karl-Anthony Towns gets emotional talking late mother’s surprising presence in NBA Finals
After the final buzzer, Towns described a sensation that had been building all day. It was something he hadn’t quite felt since he was a teenager grinding through weekend AAU circuits in New Jersey.
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Jan 27, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
“I felt really confident about today, I felt good,” Towns said. “I felt like a kid. It was just fun out here. This is something that as a kid you always dream about. You always hope to be an NBA player, let alone to be in the NBA Finals. All day, it was just a weird feeling. It felt like I was getting ready to play my Saturday AAU games and my Sunday AAU games. In a way, it felt like I was seeing her in the stands.”
That “her” is Jacqueline Cruz-Towns — KAT’s mother, the person who was always his loudest voice in any arena. Her routine was always sitting in the same spot and cheering for him to hear her over the crowd. She died six years ago, on April 13, 2020, at age 59, from COVID-19 complications.
Towns has often spoken about how difficult it has been to play without his mother, noting that his greatest joy was watching his family celebrate his success from the baseline. On Wednesday, during his first career NBA Finals game, those old memories again came into his brain again.
Despite matching up against DPOY Wembanyama on basketball’s biggest stage, Towns felt like a kid playing in weekend AAU tournaments again. He described the feeling as a calming, grounding peace rather than overwhelming pressure, adding that sensing her presence in the arena was “really comforting.”
KAT grew up in Piscataway, New Jersey and his late mother was a die-hard Knicks fan who fell in love with the franchise and Madison Square Garden after immigrating from the Dominican Republic. After the trade took place in 2024, New York brought him back to the franchise she loved.
Towns is funding a state-of-the-art youth basketball facility in Santiago, which is his mother’s birthplace. While explaining the project, he said, “They gave my mother life. It’s only right I give them mine.”
Now he’s in the Finals, playing for the franchise his mother loved, in the city where he grew up watching them. And according to KAT, she was there for Game 1.
Continue reading...
