Platano Power made some serious history in the world of basketball this year: Minnesota Timberwolves power forward/center/position-less double rainbow Karl-Anthony Towns will end the 2017 NBA season as the first Dominican player to ever score 2,000 points in a single campaign. The Dominican-American sophomore eclipsed the two stacks barrier of points on April 10, during his first-ever 40+ points/20+ rebounds game, making the one-point defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers doubly significant.
The 2,000-point barrier is near-mythical for NBA players; at the very least, someone playing 82 full games would need to average a robust 24.4 points per game. Towns is currently averaging 25.1 points, as he hit the milestone with a game to spare, thanks to a late-season push worthy of MVP consideration if it were to happen over a full year. Since the All-Star Break, the Timberwolves centerpiece has put up a ridiculous stat-line of 28.4 points, 13.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 three-pointers per game.
To put the achievement into context, the last player to score more than 2,000 points in his second season in the NBA was none other than LeBron James.
Towns was the #1 draft pick for Minnesota in the 2015 NBA Draft, following a one-year stay at the University of Kentucky’s college player summer camp. On the international level, he has decided to represent his mother’s native Dominican Republic, appearing at the 2012 Centrobasket as part of the island squad that won the gold medal there.
The 21-year-old big man continues to carry the Latino legacy in the NBA higher by the day. Just last season, he became the first Latino player to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award. It’s not a stretch to imagine him lifting the league’s MVP trophy in the future, which would make him the first Latino player to do so.