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.