Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the best players in the NBA, and as a superstar, he’s no stranger to hateful messages. There have been plenty of times where Towns has been criticized for not making the playoffs or for having bad performances. There’s no question that a lot of hate comes towards players from social media as a whole, though it must be said that there are still plenty of great fans out there.
In a recent appearance on The Courage And Nadeshot Show, Karl-Anthony Towns spoke on the vitriol that comes towards athletes from social media. Basketball fans are certainly passionate, and sometimes that passion turns into hatred towards athletes.
If you have an off night as the most recognizable athletes in the world… It’s he sucks, he sucks. But they forgot that you just had 40 for 5 straight games, and you go get 16 and they’re like “He’s trash.”
That’s the thing about being an NBA player. Once the fans make a narrative of you, that’s it. They don’t want to change it. They don’t wanna see no change, they don’t want to see no different opinion. It’s like “No, I’m the smartest person in the world. That’s it. I’m putting it on Twitter.”
Think about James Harden, they talk about him in the playoffs… Give me an argument about why you think that. Show me statistical facts of why you think that…”Well I don’t gotta show you that, I just know, I watch basketball everyday”… Let me tell you the facts. He averaged 31.6 points in the playoffs, he was killing, he was trying to drag his team into the Finals. And you’re telling me the man struggled?
Karl-Anthony Towns certainly realizes that narratives are hard to change, even though the player may have improved since the time that the narrative was created. It’s also true that there’s a lot of slander from fans about bad performances, even if the player may have had an elite stretch preceding that mediocre game. Towns definitely brings up some very valid points, and hopefully, at some point, there’ll be less hate towards athletes.
