Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) joined an elite list on Tueaday night, one that includes legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, and Wilt Chamberlain. The list is just eleven players long and contains all of the players in NBA history with 10,000 career points and 5,000 career rebounds in their first 438 games.

While the number may seem arbitrary, it is the exact number of games that KAT has played in his NBA career and shows the trajectory that Towns is on. In terms of being a “walking double-double,” he is in the top-11 in NBA history and we should all remind ourselves of that when watching him play. He makes things look so effortless and players are allowed to be so physical with him that we forget the man has averaged 23 points and eight rebounds over his first six and a half NBA seasons.

To go along with the massive scoring numbers, Towns has also been a model of efficiency. He is a career 40 percent three-point shooter and also has been over 80 percent from the free-throw line. Those numbers are other-worldly for a big man and that is before you add in the steal and block that he brings every night. His 2021 numbers, however, are down virtually across the board and the Timberwolves are currently a half-game back of the Dallas Mavericks for the Western Conference's final playoff spot. It's not an enviable position from a team standpoint but at least they can get a little bit of a reprieve from their middling season with today's news.