Karl-Anthony Towns had some jokes for John Calipari after his big contract news was shared on Saturday.
News emerged that Towns had agreed to a five-year extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves that could be worth as much as $190 million. His college coach at Kentucky, Calipari, sent a tweet expressing congratulations for Towns. Towns wrote back with a joke about Calipari holding him back in college.
Maybe you didn’t hold me back as much as I thought #loveyoucoach #appreciateyou
— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) September 23, 2018
Though Towns was joking, there is a little something to the story.
In an interview with CBS Sports’ Reid Forgrave last year, Towns talked about just how hard Calipari was on him during his one season at Kentucky in 2014-15. He said that Calipari was even tougher on him than Tom Thibodeau is with the Timberwolves.
Q. Who’s tougher on you, Thibs or Cal?
A. Haha. Ahhhh … I’ma say Cal. Cal was very hard on me. Thibs is hard on me, but Cal was otherworldly hard on me. It was definitely something I enjoyed, funny enough. I was always able to take the criticism. I was always able to talk to him. They both have love for me.
To be clear: there is no beef between them. Towns talked glowingly about Calipari and how much the coach loves his players. But the point is that Calipari was hard on Towns, and maybe Towns is now seeing that it paid off.
There’s a good reason why Cal’s players are worth a combined billion dollars in the NBA!
