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Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

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Sports October 8, 2025
Boardroom Staff
Boardroom Staff

John Calipari Properly Prepared Karl-Anthony Towns for the NBA

Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images
Last Updated: October 10, 2025
Towns reflects on his challenging year at Kentucky under Calipari, discussing his demanding system and how it prepared him for NBA success on Network with Rich Kleiman.

When Karl-Anthony Towns looks back on his lone season at Kentucky, the New York Knicks big man claims it was harder than his rookie year in the NBA.

“[Coach John Calipari] ran a tight ship,” Towns said in the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman. “Being able to be in that system … it was always about making the Kentucky experience much more difficult than the NBA experience on purpose.”

Perhaps that’s not surprising, considering the roster that KAT played with under Calipari. Among Towns’ teammates were Devin Booker, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Trey Lyles, and Willie Cauley-Stein, all of whom declared for the NBA Draft the next year. The team was so stacked that it carried a coveted undefeated record going into the national championship game that season, only to fall to Wisconsin and finish the year with a 38-1 record.

It wasn’t all bad for Towns, however, whose play in the NCAA Tournament catapulted him to the top of draft boards, despite Calipari deploying a platoon system due to the plethora of talent on the roster. He finished the season as a second-team All-American and eventually would go on to become the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Lucky for KAT, he was already prepared for what was to come his way, thanks to Kentucky and Coach Cal.

“I’ll never forget, they told me the method to the madness, so that when I got to the NBA, I wouldn’t be shocked by anything, and I would find it easier than it was being [at Kentucky] in that one year,” Towns said.

Be sure to catch the full conversation between Towns and Kleiman at Boardroom’s YouTube channel here, as well as Yahoo Sports’ podcast pages on Apple and Spotify.

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Boardroom Staff