Everyone who's ever scrolled NBA social media has seen the iconic meme of Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns posting up DeMarcus Cousins, playing for the New Orleans Pelicans at the time. However, not many people might know that ex-Timberwolves guard Jeff Teague may have had a role in creating it per his story in a recent episode of his Club 520 Podcast, which featured a guest appearance from Cousins.
“I remember you was talking s*** to me. You was like, ‘Why you ain't playing?'” Teague asked Cousins during the show, per the snippet shared by X user @wellssssssssss. “I was sitting out one game. I was like, ‘Next time we play y'all, I'm playing.' He was like, ‘You scared of ‘Do [Rajon Rondo]! He scared of ‘Do.' And I'm like, ‘What?' So we go to Minnesota, we play 'em, so I'm on the court, I'm like, ‘Yeah, muhf***er.' I was like, ‘KAT, bust his a**!' He said, ‘What?'”
The Timberwolves meme is born
Amid the laughter of his co-hosts and Cousins, Jeff Teague continued his podcast story.
“Bro, it's a picture. KAT posting up, he looking at our bench like… I said, ‘Bro crazy,'” he said. When asked if it was him behind the meme, the former point guard added, “It's him, bro.” However, DeMarcus Cousins deflected and said the meme with Karl-Anthony Towns was really born because of Teague.
Still, Teague went on with his Timberwolves story.
“KAT is posting up, and he's looking at him. I'm crying bro, I'm like, ‘Aye bro is crazy.' And then he get on offense like I told y'all. He start on Cuz, Cuz go to the basket, KAT just wrapped him up. They like, ‘Switch Taj [Gibson]!' and he was like, ‘He can't run Thibs! He gotta guard somebody!' I said, ‘Oh he's crazy.' I was like, ‘This dude wild, bro.'”
During his career, Teague earned an All-Star selection with the Atlanta Hawks and won the 2021 NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. Meanwhile, the four-time All-Star Cousins received a ring from the Los Angeles Lakers for their 2020 title, despite never playing a single game for them due to injury. (The ring also doesn't count for his career accomplishments.)
Still, it didn't stop him from joining Dwight Howard in shading GM Rob Pelinka for breaking up the title team. After an 11-year career in the NBA, Cousins moved to Asia where he dominated the Asian leagues, winning a championship with teammates Howard and Quinn Cook in Taiwan's Asian Tournament.
Currently, Karl-Anthony Towns is on the hunt for his first NBA championship. The Timberwolves' much-maligned trade for Rudy Gobert has paid dividends, helping them reach the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years, though they lost to the Dallas Mavericks in five games.