Karl-Anthony Towns lost seven family members to COVID-19

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It’s been almost nine months since Karl-Anthony towns her mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, died of complications from contracting the coronavirus. The former Kentucky Wildcat revealed on Friday he had lost six other family members to COVID-19, as well as according to ESPN Malika Andrews.

“I’ve been through a lot, obviously starting with my mom,” Towns told media Friday. “Last night I got a call saying I lost my uncle. I feel like I’ve been hardened by life and humiliated a bit.

“I have seen a lot of coffins over the past seven months.”

Karl-Anthony Towns speaks candidly about the death of his mother, the loss of six other family members to COVID, the reasons he made videos about his family experience and the game without his mother : https://t.co/0Sj8p0dkjk

– Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 4, 2020

Towns was speaking to the media ahead of the 2020-2021 season, his sixth in the NBA, all spent with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Towns’ mother and father contracted the coronavirus, as her father luckily overcame the illness before she finally put her mother into a medically induced coma. Jacqueline Cruz-Towns died on April 13 at the age of 58.

“I’ve seen a lot of coffins over the past seven months,” Towns said. “I have a lot of people who – in my family and my mother’s family – have contracted COVID. I’m always looking for answers, trying to figure out how to keep them healthy. It is just a big responsibility on me to keep my family well informed and to take whatever steps are necessary to keep them alive.

Towns posted an almost six-minute video on his social media account on March 25, explaining the situation with his mother and the emotions he was feeling.

Last month, Towns posted another 18-minute video detailing what he called “the toughest year” of his life.

Since losing his mother, Towns has been using his platform to help promote the deadly effects of COVID-19 so that he can prevent other families from experiencing a similar fate. The disease has killed more than 275,000 Americans and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Somehow Towns has to focus on basketball. He missed the Orlando bubble and hasn’t played in an NBA game since March. The 2020-21 season begins December 22.

If anyone could use a boost, he’s one of the Big Blue Nation’s favorite individuals.