Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns is full of it; it’s on the Dallas Mavericks to prove it

Youth is no excuse, and someone within the Minnesota Timberwolves organization needed to take their talented tall man and give him a talkin’ to. Someone had to tell Karl-Anthony Towns, “Son, you don’t say this.”

Michael Jordan is the most arrogant athlete who ever lived, and even he knows how to read the room to avoid ever saying he is the greatest of all time. Because no such creature exists.

Because Jordan knows it’s disrespectful to all of the great players who came before him to say otherwise. There are some players in this world you don’t disrespect, including Dirk Nowitzki. You don’t dis Dirk.

The NBA’s Western Conference Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and T-Wolves is loaded with your standard storylines, including the notion that the man called “KAT” is the best shooting big man in NBA history.

This is a tag he gave himself, and the team has touted for the last several years.

In a 2021 interview with The Athletic, KAT said, “I’m the greatest big man shooter of all time. That’s a fact. You can see the stats. I ain’t got to play like no one else.

“Everyone trying to find themselves to be the second version of me when I’m the first version. I don’t got to be the second version of someone else. I’m already an original. I don’t have to be a duplicate of someone else.”

On behalf of everyone who has watched the Dallas Mavericks since 1998, and fell in love with Dirk, KAT’s stupid needs to be stuffed in a T-shirt gun and fired into one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.

This is one of those statements that makes you question the value of the internet, YouTube, kindergarten, or any level of education. It’s proof that ignorance is often a choice.

Dirk’s old teammate, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, needs to pull aside his players and make sure they understand the severity of the stupidity of KAT’s self-glorifying comments. He needs to tell them that KAT needs to eat crow in front of Dirk.

What KAT should have said is, “Every day I thank God for making Dirk Nowitzki.”

Dirk Nowitzki made KAT, and every tall guy who wanted to jack 3-pointers possible.

When it comes to elite big-man shooters, there is one OG, Der Mann. Dirk is the original, and the rest are imitators.

“Everyone has a right to their opinion, especially now,” Kidd said Tuesday of KAT’s opinion. “He can definitely shoot it.”

Both are unassailable points.

Now in his ninth NBA season, KAT shoots 39.8% from 3-point range. In 21 NBA seasons, Dirk shot 385 from 3.

When you introduce these numbers, be sure to include how the game has evolved, and officiated, since Dirk entered.

An NBA game today is roughly 40% 3-point shots. The spacing on the floor is about that shot, and accuracy has increased.

In the NBA game today defenders aren’t allowed or interested in doing what was standard practice for much of Dirk’s career. There was a period in the first nearly decade of Dirk’s career when mauling was acceptable.

The game and the space KAT enjoys was not the same for Dirk.

“I think (KAT) can be one of the top big man shooters. Dirk was the first to start that, so I think Dirk would definitely have something to say. I think Dirk opened the door for a lot of bigs to become shooters,” Kidd said.

Before Dirk left his native Germany as a teenager to play for the Mavericks beginning in 1998, the best tall shooting big man was Larry Bird. Larry was a legit 6-foot-10.

Arvydas Sabonis would have been in this conversation, but by the time the 7-foot-3 Lithuanian came here to play for the Portland Trailblazers in 1995, he was 31 and considerably changed by injuries.

Before Dirk, big men were anchored deep in the paint, with their back at the basket. An alarm was tripped when those guys ventured 8-feet away from the rim.

When then Mavericks coach Don Nelson saw Dirk, he witnessed the future of basketball. Don may have been crazy, but some of his views about the sport were the stuff of the lunatic genius.

When Don saw Dirk, he saw the 7-foot creation who could put the ball on the floor, drive to the basket and shoot 3-pointers.

The NBA is now littered with Dirks, including KAT. KD. Giannis. Embiid. Porzingis.

KAT’s a bad man and a load to handle for any defender. For a man of any size, he’s a great shooter.

He’s not the best. And he’s certainly not the original.

KAT, pay heed to your elders.

You enjoy the game you do in part because of The Big German, and you don’t dis Dirk.