One New Jersey basketball star has another\u2019s back.<\/p>\n
Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving called for a cease of attacks on Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, specifically mentioning those chiding him for \u201cchanging up his tone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all gotta stop making fun of my brother KAT. I\u2019m done with y\u2019all,\u201d Irving said recently<\/a> on Twitch.<\/p>\n \u201cStop making fun of my brother KAT. It\u2019s over for that, it\u2019s a f\u2014king wrap, I\u2019m letting you know that if you repost that s\u2013t again or meme him up, I\u2019m attacking you. Not like that physically, GTA (popular video game franchise \u201cGrand Theft Auto\u201d), but I\u2019m attacking you.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyrie Irving defended Towns on a recent Twitch stream. @NBA_NewYork\/X<\/p>\n Towns, born and raised in the Garden State, has been accused by some of code switching, which Brittanica describes<\/a> as the \u201cprocess of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.\u201d<\/p>\n Those on social media have posted interviews in which Towns\u2019 inflection may change during the segment.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s possible that Irving may have been referring to the vitriol directed at Towns after his inconsistent showing in the playoffs, the second half of Irving\u2019s plea to the fans focused on Towns\u2019 background.<\/p>\n Towns\u2019 mother is Dominican, while his father is black. He was born in Edison, N.J., raised in Piscataway and attended St. Joseph High School in Metuchen.<\/p>\n Towns had some highs and lows during the postseason. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n \u201cY\u2019all gotta leave KAT alone because y\u2019all don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to grow up in Jersey and have all of these cultures that you\u2019re a part of, trust me on that,\u201d said Irving, who was raised in N.J. \u201cJersey is literally 130 miles long, it\u2019s (a) very, very small state \u2026 but leave him alone. Because he\u2019s Dominican, he\u2019s black, he grew up in a certain area in Jersey, just like me, and you gotta survive out here. You got many different demographics of people, so you gotta survive out here. I don\u2019t agree all the time when he be changing up his tone sometimes, I don\u2019t always agree and all that s\u2013t, that s\u2013t be funny, but on a serious note, he is a man, he is my brother and I protect him all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Towns has found himself under plenty of criticism since the Knicks\u2019 season ended in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals due to his uneven performance this postseason.<\/p>\n While he certainly had some grand moments \u2014 Game 4 against the Pistons, Game 6 against the Celtics and Game 3 against the Pacers \u2014 he far too often disappeared.<\/p>\n In Game 6 against the Pacers, he posted a minus-17 rating. Indiana routinely targeted Towns and Jalen Brunson due to their defensive deficiencies.<\/p>\n Some have wondered if the Knicks win a title with two defensive minuses in the starting lineup with Towns and Brunson, and whether that could lead to a possible trade.<\/p>\n However, for all the nitpicking, Towns still earned third-team All-NBA honors and averaged 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds during the regular season.<\/p>\n Kyrie Irving and Karl-Anthony Towns in action in 2023. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n Towns\u2019 fate is one of the Knicks\u2019 major decisions this offseason, with the first being who will replace coach Tom Thibodeau.<\/p>\n Thibodeau broke his silence on his firing Wednesday<\/a>, while the search is already experiencing some turbulence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One New Jersey basketball star has another\u2019s back. Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving called for a cease of attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,563,304,967,6,9130,1136,191,3810,3806,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-91634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-kyrie-irving","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-jersey","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkknicks","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114665564746582165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}