Neal: Wolves fans have no reason to boo Karl-Anthony Towns when Knicks visit

There will be a temptation to make the Wolves-Knicks game on Thursday a referendum on the blockbuster trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to the Big Apple for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo right before training camp opened.

Let’s fight that temptation and view the game properly.

We love story lines. And this game definitely has one. And it is that the New Jersey-born Towns is returning to the birthplace of his professional basketball career.

Thursday will be a homecoming. That is what the atmosphere should be like at Target Center when the Wolves play host to the Knicks.

Towns doesn’t deserve any disdain or booing because he’s now with an enemy. He did not ask to be traded and was blindsided by the move. Hours after the trade, he made good on a promise to watch a girls youth soccer game because one of the players was a fan who wore his No. 32. Following the game, he was off to New York.

Two weeks after the trade was finalized, he was spotted at a local concert watching a Wolves preseason game on his phone. Doesn’t sound like someone beating down the door to leave.

Nope, he was traded. The Wolves need payroll flexibility and felt it could be achieved while maintaining first-class status in the Western Conference by replacing him with Randle and DiVincenzo to build a deeper rotation. It’s been a work in progress, with the Wolves rediscovering their defensive chops of late.

Some wondered how Towns would adjust to playing in the bright lights of New York. Well, he’s averaging 24.8 points a game, which would be the third highest of his career; 13.9 rebounds a game, which leads the NBA and would be the highest mark of his career; and shooting 43.9% from three-point range, which would be a career high.

So how do you think he’s handling the transition?

He’s also logging big minutes per game after being reunited with coach Tom Thibodeau, who also is making his return to Target Center.

The Wolves are 14-11 in a tougher conference. The Knicks are 16-10. Get back to me after the season and we can evaluate the trade then.

For now, let’s remember that Towns won 29 games as a rookie, playing for Sam Mitchell, the first of four coaches for which he would play. Towns played with Kevin Garnett, who was in the final year of his Hall of Fame career. Towns played under seven different general managers, for crying out loud. Towns lost a lot here but was on the breakthrough team of 2017-18 that reached the postseason after 13 consecutive Wolves absences.

He left the program in much better shape than when he arrived as the first overall pick in 2015. He adapted his game in recent years as the roster improved and Rudy Gobert arrived, pushing Towns to power forward. Towns was a four-time All-Star here and didn’t create much controversy. I wish he would have complained less to officials, but every team seems to have a couple of those types.

We watched him become a star here. We watched him become the most skilled big man in the league here. We watched him become a man here. We were compassionate following the death of eight of his relatives from COVID, including his mother. We shook our heads in disbelief in 2017 when the Wolves mascot, Crunch, rode a sled down the steps during one of his zany bits at Target Center but crashed into Town’s father, injuring his knee. I remember the aftermath vividly. I was at a downtown Minneapolis hotel interviewing Miguel Sano for a TwinsFest story when KAT walked through the lobby with Big Karl, who was on crutches.

Fans at Target Center on Thursday should welcome him back with open arms and open throats.

“I don’t know [how they will embrace me]. But I know that every single day that I put on that Timberwolves jersey, I gave the absolute best of me even when I wasn’t 100 percent,” Towns said on Sunday following New York’s victory over Orlando. “I gave them all of me mentally, physically, spiritually. I was there nine years, so I go there with a lot of pride and joy for the memories that I have.”

Towns likely will be full of emotion and fans should be, too, as they get to watch in person, again, the best player in franchise history not nicknamed K.G.