The New York Knicks’ immense success this season, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in this millennium, has created more problems than you’d expect.
They were sent home after a Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers, which has led to critiques of Jalen Brunson hogging the ball, Tom Thibodeau getting fired, and now the Karl-Anthony Towns jokes going too far. Nicknamed Kat, the seven-footer has been jokingly called Big Purr, and has been the subject of many zesty claims due to his on-court mannerisms that fans claim aren’t manly.
The jokes have come in stride with the big’s dominant season, but now Gilbert Arenas has gone too far on a recent episode of his Gil’s Arena podcast.
“Listen, can you just put Karl-Anthony Towns out there so we can just be educated on KAT himself. It’s on KAT himself, it’s him. It’s his physical makeup: long legs, short torso, big a-s feet,” Arenas said. “There’s nothing he can do. He’s built like a whole f-cking b-tch. He’s built like a female. He’s built like a girl. He has girl hips. He’s like a full WNBA player.”
While Arenas’ comments go beyond basketball and are unfiltered and offensive, critiques against KAT’s defense are fair, as even Charles Barkley mentioned, telling him to his face that he commits “dumb fouls.”
Once Thibodeau was fired and the rose-colored glasses were removed, one of the most significant cracks reportedly in the Knicks’ foundation was his defense, which coaches and players found to be an issue, according to The Athletic.
“Publicly, Knicks players made veiled comments all season about poor communication causing their inconsistencies. Behind the scenes, they and coaches expressed frustration with Towns’ defensive habits — less concerned with his talent level and more with his process on that end,” The Athletic writes. “Too often, Towns executed incorrect coverages without communicating why he did it. After it became a theme, players worried Towns didn’t grasp the importance of the matter.”
Towns’ defensive struggles aren’t anything new and were on display during his nine years in Minnesota. Still, his offensive skills were able to overshadow them until big games in New York put him under a magnifying glass.
However, it’s also important to note that Towns had big moments in the Pacers series, and Brunson should share some of the defensive woes as well.
But now that the season is over and the hunt for a new coach is underway, it’s unclear how the team’s core will look when the 2025-26 season tips off.
See how social media is reacting to Arenas’ brutal comments below.