After Jacqueline’s death, Towns says he first found himself looking to channel his grief into basketball. “Like, I’m going to just go crazy and just put all that energy into my game, but when I looked at basketball to give me that energy — I didn’t have it. “My mom was the purpose of me even playing basketball,” he says. “So when she passed away, I had to repurpose myself. I had to find what was going to be the reason that I want to go in every day and put my body and my mind and my spirit through all this stress. Why would I do this? “It took time and a lot of self-reflection.”