Photo by USA today

By Taylore Gills

Tiger TV, Director of Special Projects

CLEVELAND – Legendary shooters such as Ray Allen, Reggie Miller and Stephen Curry share a certain physique. Their height, weight, and overall body builds reflect the typical 3-point champion, but Karl-Anthony Towns disrupted this normality during All-Star weekend’s Saturday night event. At 6-foot-11 and 248 pounds, he represented for big-man ball players who are outstanding shooters beyond the arch. 

The other participants included Desmond Bane, Patty Mills, Fred VanVleet, Trae Young, CJ McCollum, Zach Lavine, and Luke Kennard. Each of them has proven their shooting abilities, so the standards for this competition were set ridiculously high. Minnesota star Towns took away the trophy, finishing with 29 points against 26 points apiece by Atlanta’s Young and the Clippers’ Kennard in the final round. 

The excitement in the Rockets Mortgage FieldHouse grew as the shooters cleared their racks, and particularly as Towns journeyed through his final round. After knocking down five 3s in a row and numerous Money Balls worth two points each, fans could not help but shout in excitement and awe. Towns made shooting on such a high level seem effortless and proved himself as one of the best big-man shooters to ever play the game. 

“I always said, I am up there, I think, with the best shooting big man of all time,” Towns said during a postgame interview. “And I needed this trophy to prove it.” 

Towns was the first to shoot in the final round, setting a standard that his competitors could not reach during the competition. He entered this competition confident, and that was evident through his performance. 

During media interviews that afternoon, Towns explained that his shooting ability stems from his childhood when he often participated in halftime shooting contests in front of big crowds.

“I was always thrown into shooting in front of people when I was young, so when I got to the NBA and the crowd’s going crazy, it was something that I go back in time with,” Towns said.

And when the T-Wolves played on the road, “I was just used to the gym full of people wanting me not to make it. This is just something you learn.”

Prior to the competition, Bane of the Memphis Grizzlies expressed his mentality approaching the contest. 

“It’s an accomplishment to be here,” Bane said. “The goal is to win, but to just go out here and have fun with it.” 

The ultimate purpose of All-Star weekend is to bring tremendous levels of excitement to basketball fans across the globe, and each of the participants played their role in providing that.