Karl-Anthony Towns. Photo:
Justin Casterline/Getty
Karl-Anthony Towns is returning to the basketball court after taking time off to attend the funeral of a family friend.
“This is one of those moments where I had to be there for my family and be there for the kids that lost somebody really special to them,” the 29-year-old New York Knicks player said Thursday, March 6, as he joined his team in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers, the New York Post reported.
The NBA player also shared a photo of the late family friend, Sarah Holtzman, on his Instagram Stories earlier in the day.
Karl Anthony-Towns. Justin Casterline/Getty
In the picture, he and Holtzman smiled as they posed together, with her holding up one of his autographed jerseys.
Towns’ girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, reposted the image.
Over on her Instagram account, the 27-year-old model shared a tribute, referring to Holtzman as her aunt.
“My guardian angels 🤍🕊️,” the television personality captioned a carousel that began with a photo of her late father, John Woods, sitting with Holtzman.
John died of cancer in 2017.
“I’ve had some time to sit with this and can’t seem to find the words to do you justice. Aunt Sarah wouldn’t want us to feel sorry she would want us to celebrate her life. Love you forever and thank you all for your messages,” Jordyn concluded.
Other photos in her post showed her and Holtzman smiling as she sat on Holtzman’s lap as a baby. Two other photos showed Holtzman holding her.
“F— Cancer,” Jordyn tweeted two days before Towns’ return to the basketball court.
In a follow-up post on X Thursday morning, she wrote, “Thank you for all of your prayers and concern. I had to bury one of the closest people to me yesterday after she lost her battle to breast cancer. Life isn’t always fair. She will be missed tremendously.”
Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods, June 2024. Ricky Vigil M/Getty
Jordyn and Towns began dating in 2020 after years of being friends.
During a September 2020 interview with Extra to discuss her upcoming BET film, Trigger, she told the outlet that she and Towns bonded over both losing a parent.
Recalling how the Knicks star lost his mother to COVID-19 in April of that year, Jordyn said they ″connected about losing a parent at a very young age.″
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″So, it was a very organic relationship that we’d been best friends for a while,” she said.
Earlier in the interview she told Extra, ″I just think that when you find the right one, you can learn even more about yourself. It’s about learning to evolve with someone. The right person will bring a lot out of you.”
