Karl-Anthony Towns criticism draws defense from NFL great

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New York Giants great Carl Banks got into a social media spat with radio personality Gregg Giannotti on Monday as the reaction to the New York Knicks’ season ending in anticlimactic fashion poured in.

Giannotti sounded off on the biggest issues the Knicks had and pointed to part of the problem being Karl-Anthony Towns’ performance during the year and on top of his annual salary.

“At the core, he’s a loser,” Giannotti said on WFAN. “That is their biggest problem. The guy is a loser. He’s a losing player. He complains. He is soft. He shows your flashes where he is the best player on the court. Not enough. He doesn’t play enough defense. He b—-es and moans. He is, up until this point in his career, a loser who is making $50 million who is going to be a logjam as far as them trying to get to the next level.

“He is getting to the point now as one of the most frustrating players I’ve ever watched in the uniform of a team that I root for because I know how good he could be. And it’s just so damn annoying watching him not realize his full potential. And I don’t know if it’ll ever happen. I really don’t know. But that is their biggest issue – the fact they thought this Towns thing is gonna work better than it did and it hasn’t.”

The former Giants linebacker did not take Giannotti’s comments lightly.

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“This is genuinely pathetic. Calling a man you’ve never met a ‘loser’ says far more about you than it ever could about him,” Banks wrote on X. “I’ve known Kat and his family since he was a kid—there’s absolutely nothing about him that resembles a loser. Try being a better human instead of broadcasting this ignorant s—.”

Giannotti fired back at Banks.

“Great to hear from you, killer. You still owe me 500 bucks from an appearance I did for you in 2010 in Pittsburgh,” he wrote.

Towns had 22 points and 14 rebounds in the Knicks’ Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night. He was minus-17 on the floor. He put up three 24-point performances during the series as well, but the Knicks could never really shut down the Pacers defensively.