Every time Towns talks about what he’s been through, something new comes into focus. “I think my mom passing away was the first time I realized basketball can’t fix something,” Towns says. “Think about that. All the connections, all the people I knew, all the resources I had that people didn’t have with COVID, and I still lost. “I still watched her life fade away in my hands, literally in my hands, with a hazmat suit on. I couldn’t fix it. “It was the first time I realized basketball was not going to save me this time. I really had to do the work.”