C.J.: Karl-Anthony Towns didn't want to jinx ROTY honor by preordering a gem of a suit

At 1:45 a.m. Monday the guys at King Brothers Clothiers got a text message from Karl-Anthony Towns.

"He wrote, I won. Today's the big day. Can you guys be super heroes and come style me?" Danny King told me. "So we were at his apartment about 8 a.m. It was just us and his parents hanging out for a while. We put together something for him to wear and left and Karl hadn't even gotten there yet."

King told me the big KAT's dad was anxious that the Timberwolves player hadn't returned from his morning workout by 8:30 a.m. because media interviews were scheduled for 9 a.m. "I guess when you're the Rookie of the Year, people should wait for you," joked King.

After Danny and Kenny King left the apartment they received another text.

"We were across the street at Caribou having our first cup of coffee of the day," said Kenny. "He wanted to go through some additional options, so we went back to his apartment. There were NBA TV people there, his sister had come with her kids and it was kind of a zoo. We got there and went into his closet, we talked through everything and ended up making some tweaks and came up with … a light lavender knit tie with a brighter polka dot purple pocket square with a nice lapel flower."

The Kings have had a special suit in mind for Towns. "We were like, 'Hey, we should make this up so when you accept your Rookie of the Year award you can wear it,' " Kenny said. "He was like I don't know, guys, I feel like that might be jinxing it. Maybe we should hold off."

On Monday, the Kings got the go-ahead to make that special garment.

"We brought the ideas we had put together and he was excited and showing his mom and saying, This is what I'm going to get for a reward for getting Rookie of the Year.

"The interesting thing for us is this cloth is one of the most exclusive pieces in the world. It has ground-up precious gems dust woven into the cloth. And the suit will have black pearl buttons," said Danny. "We're going to go through all the styling details sometime in the next couple days because it's a little bit of a whirlwind for him now. We predict within the next month he'll be rockin' that suit somewhere."

DON'T curb enthusiasm, KAT

Towns was not rockin' it on ESPN's "Coast to Coast" on Monday.

"I need a little more excitement from you. You just won the award. You're Rookie of the Year. I need you to be a little more excited about this interview on 'Sports Center,' " ESPN's Cari Champion told Karl Anthony Towns via satellite.

Towns kicked it up, a tiny bit more but not much. (The Kings say he's always laid back.)

Before Champion asked Towns to be more animated, he seemed only slightly livelier than the Twins' nearly comatose Joe Mauer.

Towns sounded very coach-like during the first minutes of the interview. For example, when Champion asked KAT to describe his game: "I just try to play as [versatilely] as possible, giving the coaching staff as many opportunities on offense and defense to guard multiple positions, also play multiple positions … shoot, pass, do everything the team needs me to do at any given time."

Noting how talented the Timberwolves are based on last season's Rookie of the Year being Andrew Wiggins, Champion asked for a prediction about next season. "I think we're going to be really big, we're going to be really big, a play off team I truly believe. A team the West will definitely start respecting."

Towns clearly saves his energy for the floor.

Shepherd's Prince moment

When Prince was on ABC's "The View" a while back, former co-host Sherri Shepherd wasted no time telling him what was on her mind.

Shepherd was on Fox's "Wendy Williams Show," Monday remembering Prince. "He told me he loved me. Now I made him say it but he did say he loved me," she said. "And when you are next to your crush, Wendy, you better say what you want to say right then. So I told him, 'I've wanted to make love to you my whole life.' " Shepherd said she didn't think Prince's running off the stage had anything to do with her. He did invite her back on stage to dance to "Kiss." It was so exhausting Shepherd said she asked Prince if he had an inhaler.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show" and "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.