"Like we're animals in a petting zoo"- Josh Hart shares honest opinion about Karl-Anthony Towns' rough personal week

After Karl-Anthony Towns didn't play in the game against the Golden State Warriors on March 4, Draymond Green made an uninformed comment that the New York Knicks star avoided playing because of Jimmy Butler.

However, Green had to take his words back after he got to know about the hardship that Towns was going through with the loss of a family friend.

After the loss against the LA Clippers on Saturday, Sportskeeda's Mark Medina asked Towns' teammate Josh Hart about Towns' tough week. The Knicks guard bared his heart and remarked that amid the competition and their identity as players, people often forgot that they were also human beings.

"It's tough. A lot of you guys forget we're humans," Hart said. "Or you guys look at us like we're animals in a petting zoo or a parlay and y'all forget that we're actual people, that we have real life problems and traumas and things like that that we have to navigate."

"We give him a lot of credit, we're there for him, and I think everyone has to keep that in mind when they see things. People say stupid things when they don't understand... We're humans."

Karl-Anthony Towns later made an emotional post featuring the dearly departed on his Instagram story.

Karl-Anthony Towns opens up about friend's tragic loss

Karl-Anthony Towns eventually opened up about the tragic loss of his friend to cancer. After the game against the LA Clippers, Towns thanked his teammates and his family for supporting him during the rough patch.

"It's been a very tough week," Towns said. "Especially, for a week for a place where I'm usually comfortable at in the summer. It meant a lot to have my teammates supporting me and understanding the situation... We were all very close with this woman."

Towns lost his mother to COVID-19 complications in 2020. The Knicks star revealed that his friend left behind her two kids and it opened his old wound of losing his mother almost five years ago.

"For me, it's a little tougher, having to open old wounds up having to be there for her kids that lost their mother, and I know how that is. Two boys that lost their mother, I know the feeling."

Although Karl-Anthony Towns didn't reveal much about his friend who passed after a heroic battle with cancer, his girlfriend Jordyn Woods' mother Elizabeth Woods' social media post revealed more about the situation.

On her IG story, Elizabeth revealed that she and Sarah were friends for decades. She also vowed to take care of Sarah's family for life.

Since taking the game off against the Warriors, Karl-Anthony Towns has played both games against the LA Clippers and the LA Lakers.