Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns told reporters on Friday that six other family members have died because of COVID-19 since the death of his mother earlier this year. The 25-year-old added that the constant loss has made this year especially hard for him.
Per Malika Andrews of ESPN, Towns said specifically that he hasn't "been in a good place" since his mother went to a hospital back in March with the respiratory disease that has caused a global pandemic. Jacqueline Cruz, Towns' mother, died in April after she was placed in a medically induced coma.
KAT says he has lost six other family/relations from COVID in addition to his mother. "I'm the one looking for answers to try to keep my family well informed and make all the moves necessary to keep them alive."
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) December 4, 2020
Towns has been rather open about his recent struggles since the death of his mother. In a video posted back in early November, the All-Star said he was leaning on friends and family to get through life.
"I think for me, I think if I was to say how am I coping and how am I healing from this, I'm trying to heal myself through others," Towns said at the time. "I'm trying to do as much as I can for my sister and my father. Trying to take care of my friends, and I'm trying to heal myself through them. It's helped, but I think that one day, and I know it's creeping up, I feel it every day, it's gonna creep up, and I'm going to have to find a way to deal with it, actually.
"That's why I wanted to do this. I thought this would be therapeutic for me to admit that these things are real and how I feel is real and being able to try to find some normalcy."
Since the pandemic began, the United States has seen more than 13.3 million confirmed cases and over 267,000 deaths, by far the highest numbers in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As CBS News notes, the U.S. accounts for nearly 20% of the global death toll. The U.S. also reported over 4 million cases in November.
