Karl-Anthony Towns honors the memory of his late mother, Jackie — who passed away in 2020 — every day in a number of ways.

Not the least of which is his commitment to spreading the lessons she taught him during their time together. Perhaps the most basic — and important — one of those lessons was love.

“I just try to spread love. My mother taught me the meaning of love, and I just want to continue the teachings that she’s given me in her life and spread it with the youth and every generation to come,” Towns said. “It’s just an ongoing journey that I have, and I feel that my purpose in life is to utilize this platform for the betterment of others.”

He’s certainly fulfilling that, as recognized Thursday, when Towns was named the 2023-24 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion by the NBA. The award “honors a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and upholding the league’s values of equality, respect and inclusion.” Towns was previously nominated for the award back in 2022.

“It means a lot. To have a name like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar be on an award and to be receiving that award as a guy who’s impacted the game not only on the court, but off the court, it means a lot,” Towns said. “Even when I was (previously) nominated  … my girlfriend, she saw the excitement on my face to be recognized by a legend like that.”

The recognition is a result of the work Towns has done on multiple issues; one of which was his work and advocacy for expanded voter rights in Minnesota. He assisted in the passing of Bill HF28 – Minnesota’s Restore the Vote bill, which allows formerly incarcerated individuals the right to vote.

He’s also shed a light on issues with mass incarceration.

Towns participated in community conversations and visited with the Minnesota Freedom Fund, New Justice Project, Minnesota Justice Research Center and All-Square, all organizations who played a role in passing the bill.

And that’s not all. Towns holds an annual coat drive with Hy-Vee and YouthLink to keep kids in need stay warm in the winter. He’s heavily involved with the team’s annual Pride Night at Target Center and produced the documentary “Forgiving Johnny,” which shows an LA County public defender who used new technology to successfully defend a client with developmental disabilities facing a 20-year prison sentence.

“It’s always something I wanted to do. I’ve said it before, I want to leave the world a better place than when I came into it. For my mom being an immigrant, coming over from Dominican Republic, and one of the things I remember young is that she was super excited and kinda had a celebration for getting her vote, her right to vote and getting her citizenship,” Towns said. “For me, I made that a key for me, especially with how things have turned out in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. I thought it was a great way to honor my mother and continue to fight for the right to vote. She realized her American dream when she got that, right? And I want other people to have that dream as well, and to realize it.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch always praises the quality of people the team has accrued on its roster. Towns is a shining example of that.

“We know the work he’s done and (how he’s) active in the community here,” Finch said. “To get that type of recognition, such a prestigious award, we’re very proud of him.”

How does Towns find the time to do so much in the community?

“Good scheduling,” he joked.

Along with some help from family and friends.

“I always dedicate so much of my life to basketball, but I have a very great support system that is willing to join me in these efforts,” Towns said. “Instead of having to feel that I’m splitting too much of my time, they join me. Like my family and my friends, who enjoy joining me in these charitable events that I have and things I want to do to impact the community.”

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Timberwolves coach Chris Finch attended the team’s practice the day after he had surgery to repair his ruptured patellar tendon. There the head man was, on the floor, crutching around at a time when most would’ve been planted on their couches.

And then, shortly after practice concluded, the pain truly kicked in.

“I think the initial pain medication that they gave him was starting to wear off from the surgery,” Wolves assistant coach Micah Nori told Chat Hartman on WCCO Radio that afternoon. “So I think he was in immense pain,”

Indeed, after the nerve blocker applied post surgery runs its course, things get real.

Surely, that pain — which kicked in just two days prior to Game 1 in Denver — would be enough to sideline the head coach.

Not quite. Finch had a post-op appointment that Friday morning, then almost immediately got a flight to Denver and rejoined the team at practice that afternoon.

It’s unimaginable.

“I tell you,” Nori said, “he’s a trooper and he’s a warrior.”

Finch sat in the second row, just off from the scorer’s table for the first two games in Denver — both victories.

“It was great. Most important thing for me was finding a way for me to be involved and active, and also be in a place where I felt safe; where I wasn’t going to catch anything that I couldn’t get out of the way of. That was all great,” Finch said. “I could see easily, I could engage with the players, engage with the coaches. Our coaches have done an incredible job. We have a great staff here. I trust them implicitly, so it’s pretty seamless, to be quite honest with you.

“My biggest concern was would it be disruptive or distracting to the players and they’ve been all on board and they flow easily with this stuff.”

Not ideal, but he made it work.

“Just gotta adjust. That’s what leadership is about,” Finch told Paul Allen on KFXN-100.3. “You’ve got to adjust whatever your circumstances are.”

Still, while Finch’s setup was safe, there’s no way it was comfortable. It’s not as though his leg — which is locked into a straight-leg cast for the foreseeable future — was elevated.

“Yeah, I’m in a pretty good amount of pain,” Finch told Allen on Monday. “Kind of constant pain all the time.”

Whenever he wasn’t at practice or a game, he was on a couch with his leg elevated and wrapped in ice.

“It’s just part of it. You’ve just got to deal with it,” Finch told Allen. “It’s not been too, too bad, and I know the guys appreciate having me around and I appreciate being around, so I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

While Nori was the one stalking the sidelines for each of Minnesota’s two victories in Denver — and played a large role in the team’s success — Finch’s presence mattered.

“He’s our leader, he’s a guy you can look over to and, even still, he hops over on the crutches at times when he’s yelling at guys behind the bench. That passion he has for the game, it’s rubbing off on other guys,” Conley said. “We’re doing a great job of keeping him involved, keeping him engaged and he’s doing a great job keeping on us and just being who he is.”

The full version of who he is.

Finch has largely kept off the narcotic painkillers in his recovery — unfathomable for many people who’ve endured that surgery. He refused to take any strong painkillers around game time, and has largely just been on Tylenol. The coach isn’t doing anything to jeopardize his clarity at the climax of the season.

“He wants this. He wants to be a part of this, and we want him to be a part of this,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said. “That’s huge for us to see that toughness he has to still be a part of this. That’s exciting.”

Toughness — it’s something Finch demands of his team on a daily basis. It’s that culture of competitiveness that’s helped breed the NBA’s top defense. Throughout the regular season, Finch implores his players to be available and play, knowing those habits would serve the team well come playoffs.

Now, he’s practicing what he preached.

“If he’s going to tell us to play through injuries and stuff like that, he better damn well be on that bench,” Conley joked. “So, he’s doing a great job.”

Heading into Friday’s Game 3 at Target Center, Finch is improving physically every day. He certainly still “has some moments” of intense pain every day, but they’re becoming fewer and farther between.

“That’s the good thing. It’s going in the right direction. The doctors are really happy. Can put a little bit more weight on it starting right now. Started therapy yesterday,” Finch said Thursday. “The pain comes and goes in different forms, but overall, it’s been manageable.”

Game 3 would’ve been a logical time for the coach to join his team on the sidelines. That he miraculously did so nearly a week earlier is something his players won’t soon forget.

“Someone like me who just came off (meniscus) surgery on my knee, and it was nowhere near as major as his, I can imagine the doctor told him not to travel and not fly, and Finchy said, ‘Hell no, I’m gonna be there for my team,’” Wolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns said. “So, (as) the leader of our team, when you have someone who is willing to fight like that, of course his troops are willing to fight just as hard.”

“That,” Anthony Edwards said, “is the perfect answer.”

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Tom Reid has always fashioned his sports bar on West Seventh Street in downtown St. Paul as the place to watch hockey. The name speaks for itself. It’s literally called Tom Reid’s Hockey City Pub.

That said, Reid has seen a different fervor as of late, with many of his customers coming in with the sole purpose of watching the Timberwolves on one of the many TVs at the bar and restaurant. The playoff run has consumed the state of Minnesota over the past few weeks with the Timberwolves looking the part of a legitimate NBA title contender.

“It’s been so exciting to watch,” said Reid, a former North Stars player and a current radio broadcaster for the Wild. “Everybody wants to be a part of it.”

That statement rings true throughout the Twin Cities as bars, restaurants and breweries alike have seen an uptick in business during Timberwolves playoff games. If a fan can’t watch the Timberwolves play in person, watching at a local establishment, and living and dying with every possession, has emerged as the next best thing in replicating the atmosphere.

That explains why the Timberwolves have partnered with nearly a dozen bars and restaurants in and around downtown Minneapolis ahead of Friday night’s Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets at Target Center. The Timberwolves lead the best-of-7-games series 2-0, with Games 3 and 4 coming to their home court.

The official list of bars partnering with the Timberwolves includes Tom’s Watch Bar, Kieran’s​ Irish Pub, Lyons Pub​, The Loop​, 8th Street Grill​, The Local​, Sneaky Pete’s​, Jackson’s Hole​, The Loon​, Gluek’s, and The Corner Bar.

“You walk in there and every screen is on the Timberwolves,” said Tom Ryan, co founder of Tom’s Watch Bar, which is located a block away from Target Center. “It’s majestic in there.”

As this particular group of players continues to capture the collective consciousness locally, nationally and even internationally, Timberwolves Chief Operating Officer Ryan Tanke admitted he hasn’t seen anything quite like this during his decades with the organization.

He started as an intern in the late 1990s, left to work for the San Diego Chargers, then came back in the mid 2000s. He has been around for snapshot moments in time that felt big for the Timberwolves, like the rise of Ricky Rubio, the rebirth of Kevin Love’ and the return of Kevin Garnett.

“Nothing remotely close to what we’re seeing and experiencing right now,” Tanke said. “We knew from really early on that this season was going to be special, and to see that build, then over these last couple of weeks and spill into the bars, restaurants and breweries around town, it’s been amazing.”

The scenes around the Twin Cities during Timberwolves playoff games have been pretty incredible.

“This is a really hungry fan base that hasn’t had a lot of success over the past 20 years,” Tanke said. “We’ve got sort of a pent-up interest that is bubbling over.”

There were more than 800 people outside of Falling Knife Brewing Company in Minneapolis last weekend to watch the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets in Denver in the first two games of the series.

Minnesota Timberwolves fans gather outside Falling Knife Brewery in Minneapolis on April 20, 2024 to watch an NBA playoff game between the Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns. (Courtesy of Jason Ehrreich)

“It gets insane in here,” said Falling Knife co founder Dan Herman, who opened the brewery with his good friends Andy Rutledge and Tom Berg, with hopes of carving out a niche as a Timberwolves bar. “I’m euphoric about this moment because this is literally what I wanted our place to be.”

It was a similar scene at Headflyer Brewing last weekend with its taproom completely full cheering for the Timberwolves.

“Our anniversary party for the brewery happened to coincide with the Timberwolves playing the Nuggets,” said Headflyer marketing director Megan Russell, adding that the brewery recently created a new space aptly named the Wolves Den. “The stars definitely aligned for us. There’s no other way to describe it than electric. We haven’t had this in so long as Minnesotans, so I think everybody is hungry for it.”

The pergola at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park was packed for a watch party last weekend with people sticking around to mingle long after the Timberwolves secured the win. .

“You can feel the momentum,” Park Tavern events coordinator Cheryl Gallagher Watson said. “We’ve seen it grow organically throughout this season. It’s been a lot of fun to see the excitement. It’s gotten way bigger than we would’ve anticipated.”

Needless to say the energy is palpable across the Twin Cities with more and more fans showing up each time the Timberwolves win. Why have so many people latched on?

“Because it doesn’t happen very often for us,” Herman said with a laugh. “It feels like with this team people are finally starting to let  go of the curse of Minnesota sports. They are just enjoying it for what it is. It’s a really fun thing for everybody right now.”

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