NEW YORK — Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns used World Mental Health Day to talk about the grief he still carries six years after his mother died of COVID-19 complications, according to The Associated Press.
Towns said basketball ‘felt hollow’ after her death. ‘I didn’t know if I wanted to do it anymore,’ he told the audience at a Project Healthy Minds festival.
He said he felt ‘this very big calm’ entering the NBA Finals, which the Knicks went on to win. ‘I felt like it was kinda just me, her and the game of basketball,’ he said.
Towns credited strength and wellness coach Arnie Kander for helping him. ‘Just to be heard … it makes life much lighter,’ he said.
Project Healthy Minds runs a free online marketplace for finding therapy and other mental health services.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Frank E. Cooper / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
