For Wolves draft picks Towns and Jones, family forged their success
MINNEAPOLIS -- By the time ESPN could get a camera pointed at Karl-Anthony Towns' parents on draft night, Karl Sr. and Jacqueline Cruz had already donned slate-blue Timberwolves snapback hats, emblazoned with a howling canine above a moonlit basketball. The next day, as their son was formally introduced to the Twin Cities, the lids were still in place -- no word if mom and dad ever took them off overnight.
Nearby in the Mayo Clinic Square atrium, where her own son was fielding questions during a press conference alongside Towns, president and coach Flip Saunders and general manager Milt Newton, Debbie Jones glowed. Smiled. Beamed. This despite nary an ounce of sleep after a draft-night party at downtown Minneapolis' Bar 508.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyus Jones are the two newest members of what locals hope is a rising power in the NBA's Western Conference. But theirs is a spotlight shared with those whom they hold most dear.
"For me, the sacrifices my family has had to make in my life has meant the world to me," said Towns, the first No. 1 overall pick in Wolves history. "It's meant the world to me to have them here at this press conference and see that those sacrifices, all the times that they went to work early mornings and came back late nights, have all not been for nothing but for something and they can see their son being successful right now in life and living well."
Said Tyus Jones, referring to his own inner circle: "They've been with me, really gotten me to this point. I wouldn't be here without them."
As long as he's in the NBA, Towns' lore will include tales of his dad paving and constructing a backyard basketball court piecemeal, then teaching his son the game's arts and sciences at their Piscataway, N.J. home. To help makes end meet, the pair collected coupons Towns' mother could use at the grocery store.
Karl Sr. worked at a pharmaceutical company and served as a high school basketball coach. Jacqueline -- whose Dominican heritage allows Towns to play for the Dominican national team, though he won't this summer as he focuses solely on transitioning to the NBA -- is a nurse by trade.
Their 6-foot-11, 250-pound son will earn about $28.4 million during the next five years, and he doesn't plan to keep it all to himself.
"I can't wait for them to live the way I do and be part of this journey with me," Karl-Anthony Towns said, "and just smile for the first time and have a fresh breath of air that they haven't had before."
Per the league's rookie salary scale, Jones stands to earn $7 million the next four years, provided he performs well enough for Minnesota to pick up team options on his contract. Those are riches he and his two brothers never dreamed of growing up in Apple Valley, where Debbie Jones raised them on her own.
In addition to juggling jobs and getting her boys to practice, Debbie -- a former high school state champion and collegiate player in North Dakota -- became Tyus' biggest fan and, along with a number of basketball-playing family members, instilled in him a love for hoops at an early age.
"Family is very important to me," Tyus Jones said. "I have a very close-knit family. They're so supportive of me, there for me, no matter what."
The dollar signs and several figures after them are nice, but this is about more than money. As Towns said, it's about sacrifice, whether it's Karl Sr. laying concrete in his spare time or Debbie Jones tweaking her schedule to meet her sons' basketball needs.
The week before the draft, she was in Argentina watching her youngest, Tre, win a gold medal with the United States' Under-16 team.
On a festive draft night, Saunders and general manager Milt Newton both spoke highly of Towns and Jones' character, making special note they embrace Minnesota and have the kind of grounding that leads to appreciation for what they've been given.
Professional sports are a business. But with Towns' and Jones' backgrounds comes a reminder the human familial element still plays an integral role.
"We want players that want to be here, and both kids that we drafted tonight stated that they want to be here," Newton said Thursday night. "It's the beginning of something great."
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