Up Next

Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves dunks against the Atlanta Hawks on March 28, 2018 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Karl-Anthony Towns (career-high 56 points) set a new Timberwolves franchise record for points in a game, en route to a 126-114 victory over the Hawks tonight in Minnesota. David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images
2 min read

Ben Simmons calls Karl-Anthony Towns’ shot

Towns drops 56 on Hawks, whom Simmons told him not to worry about

Martenzie Johnson @10zJohnson
Topics:
NBA Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons Minnesota Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns Atlanta Hawks

Up Next From Sports

    7:16 AMBen Simmons is set to make just $6 million this season, but he could easily make nearly 100 times that if he plays the lottery Friday.

    The Philadelphia 76ers rookie guard is obviously some kind of wizard or prophet based on his ability to predict the future, so why not take a stab at Friday’s reported $500 million-plus Mega Millions jackpot?

    Let’s rewind first.

    On Tuesday night, Simmons was playing something called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds over a livestream (reading that sentence is like reading Spanish or Mandarin), and was joined by Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. At one point, the third-year 7-footer told Simmons he had to hop off because 1) it was bedtime and 2) he had a game the next day.

    Simmons wanted to keep playing, so he asked Towns who the Timberwolves’ next opponent was. Towns responded the Atlanta Hawks, to which Simmons quipped: “You got plenty of time.”

    We haven’t seen that level of disrespect from a rookie since Daniel Puder sized up Kurt Angle on WWE SmackDown.

    Anyway, Simmons turned out to be correct, as Towns laid a franchise-record 56 points on the Hawks on Wednesday night, including 26 in the first half. This was the third-highest point total the Hawks have allowed, behind only Michael Jordan’s 61 and Larry Bird’s 60. This also continues a rough seven-day stretch for Atlanta, who lost to the Sacramento Kings in front of fewer than 2,000 fans on March 22 because of protests outside the Kings’ arena.

    But back to Simmons. If the young guy can predict a player’s first 50-point game, there’s no telling what else he knows.

    Martenzie Johnson is a senior writer for Andscape. His favorite cinematic moment is when Django said, "Y'all want to see somethin?"