Chris Broussard discussing Karl Anthony Towns' absence against the Warriors on 'First Things First Photo Credit: FS1
By Reice Shipley on

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On Thursday, information emerged about why New York Knicks center Karl Anthony Towns missed Tuesday’s game against the Golden State Warriors. And this information has resulted in both Warriors star Draymond Green and FS1 personality Chris Broussard receiving significant backlash for spreading their own theories to Towns’ absence.

On Wednesday’s edition of The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis, Green discussed the Warriors’ win over the Knicks, citing Towns’ absence as a big factor in the end result. As for why Green believed Towns missed the game, Green alluded to Towns being afraid of going against Warriors forward and former teammate Jimmy Butler.

“That was a big game for us,” said Green. “And obviously, they ain’t have KAT. Some would say he didn’t play because Jimmy was in the building. I don’t know. I saw KAT’s pops at the game yesterday. I got incredible love for the OG, his pops is an incredible man. But yeah, they say KAT didn’t play because Jimmy came into town. You know him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota. I don’t know, I don’t know what was hurt. I didn’t look that deep into it to figure out what his injury was or nothing like that.”

Broussard later ran with this theory on Towns’ absence during Thursday’s edition of First Things First, listing Towns as the No. 1 player on his weekly “under duress” list.

“There’s a rumor out there,” said Broussard. “Draymond said it on his podcast. KAT missed the last game against Golden State (against) Jimmy Butler and Steph and those guys. And Draymond said the word is, the scuttlebutt, is that he didn’t want to play against Jimmy Butler. Because of what Jimmy Butler did… I’m just saying, it’s out there. It’s out there. People think KAT is soft. You gotta change that KAT. KAT, I believe in you so get it done tonight!”

The official reason that Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau gave for Towns’ absence was due to personal reasons. His absence was further cleared up on Thursday when his girlfriend Jordyn Woods took to social media to detail how she unfortunately had to attend the funeral of “one of the closest people to her” on Tuesday.

“Thank you for all of your prayers and concern,” wrote Woods in an Instagram story. “I had to bury one of the closest people to me yesterday after she lost her battle to breast cancer. Life isn’t always fair. She will be missed tremendously.”

Towns, who is returning for the Knicks for their matchup on Thursday, detailed that the funeral was simply a “moment he had to be there for” in a message to the New York Post.

“This is one of those moments where I had to be there for my family and be there for the kids that lost somebody really special to them,” said Towns.

Given the fact that the truth of the matter is that Towns instead had to grieve the loss of someone close to him and his girlfriend, both Green and Broussard naturally dealt with backlash from fans on social media for spreading this false rumor about Towns.

“Green casually throwing this out there on his platform without researching the situation is extremely irresponsible,” wrote SNY’s Ian Begley in a post on X.

“Draymond Green talked about needing mental help last season for his outrageously dirty antics on the court, then spreads a senseless lie about Karl Anthony-Towns who missed a game for personal issues after a friend died of cancer. An utter CLOWN,” wrote WFAN host EJ Stewart.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley