PHILADELPHIA — Karl-Anthony Towns knows what Nick Nurse is going through.
He has dealt with personal loss, and he understands how difficult it is to balance grief with the job.
“I really wanted to give my condolences to him, I haven’t been able to talk to him personally, but I know it’s really tough,” Towns said unprompted Saturday. “I don’t know what he’s going through [exactly], but in a similar fashion I know how it is to have to show up to work and to have a lot of pressure on you to do something special when you’re kind of not fully there.”
Nurse’s brother, Steve, unexpectedly died April 29 at the age of 62.
The coach didn’t miss any time with the 76ers despite the difficult loss, other than to attend Steve’s funeral Tuesday, an off-day between Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Knicks. Before Game 2, he addressed it.
“I mean, kind of the film and the practice and the game and all that stuff kind of takes care of some time, right?” Nurse said then. “But I’m here coaching and my brother would expect me to be. He was a huge fan. He wants us to go play, he wants us to play hard, so that’s what we’re going to try to do tonight.”
Sunday figures to be emotional for Towns, since it is Mother’s Day. He lost his mom, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, in April of 2020 to COVID-19.
He is thankful there is a game to take his mind off it. The two were very close.
“It’s work. Just work to me,” Towns said. “I’m glad we got a game on Mother’s Day. It gets me doing what I love and what gets me off of everything off the court.”