MINNEAPOLIS — All Karl-Anthony Towns needed was a chance to play in a small, low-pressure market to realize his dreams.

The Timberwolves did him a favor by trading him from the cauldron of Minnesota sports to a backwoods retreat named Madison Square Garden, which, it appears, is located on a very small island known as Manhattan. I’m picturing one of those almost-deserted oases featuring nothing taller than a palm tree.

The easy and on-brand takeaway from the NBA Finals is that the Timberwolves made a terrible mistake when they traded Towns, and that this mistake is reminiscent of a dozen other similar mistakes made by Minnesota sports teams.

The rational takeaway is that the Timberwolves made a reasonable deal, given their financial constraints, that could still look good in the future.

The best takeaway would be that Towns, regardless of the trade, this year became a player everyone should be able to cheer for, regardless of geography.

Towns has always been an exceptional shooter for a big man, and a productive rebounder. He’s always been a good teammate and big-hearted member of his community.

What you could fairly question was whether he had the mental and physical toughness, and the versatility, to become a key player on a championship team.

That fair question was paired with an indelible answer during the playoffs.

The New York Knicks won the NBA championship by going 16-3 in the postseason. Any complaints about the weakness of the Eastern Conference were erased when the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in five games in the Finals, two weeks after the most popular question in basketball was whether the Spurs were embarking on a dynastic run.

Towns was asked to duel with Victor Wembanyama — sometimes directly, sometimes statistically — as Wembanyama was transforming himself into the best player in the league.

To summarize: In Towns’ first career trip to the NBA Finals, he would be asked to help the historically frustrated Knicks, who had not won the title since 1973, to a championship while playing against perhaps the best player in the world and the next NBA dynasty, while playing in the pressure-cookers that are New York City and Madison Square Garden.

Towns didn’t always perform brilliantly or efficiently, but he displayed mental and physical toughness that will ensure he never has to pay for a pastrami sandwich in New York for the rest of his life.

Towns used his strength to push Wembanyama around. He dunked on Wemby. He shrugged him off and hit awkward shots around the rim. He blocked out Wemby as well as anyone has.

In Game 5 on Saturday night, Towns scored just two posts in one of the worst offensive games of his career, yet grabbed 10 rebounds and helped hassle Wembanyama into a poor shooting performance.

The Knicks were down two games to one to Atlanta in the first round. Towns went to Knicks coach Mike Brown and volunteered to become the passing hub of the offense. He became a point-center, which allowed Jalen Brunson to play more like a shooting guard, and opened up cutting lanes for his teammates.

That was the latest selfless act by Towns.

Towns was always the victim of whisper campaigns in Minnesota. You heard that he was soft, phony, complacent.

Here’s what I know: He was the first pick in the draft. He was the Wolves’ franchise player. He welcomed his de facto replacement as franchise player when the Wolves drafted Anthony Edwards. He welcomed his actual replacement as the team’s center when Rudy Gobert arrived. Saturday night he praised his former teammates, specifically Edwards, for making him better.

He never complained about his role. He didn’t even complain about the trade to New York, which, if he had been the person many Minnesotans thought he was, would have ended disastrously.

I never developed a close relationship with Towns. I just admired the way he handled challenges that often cause elite athletes to grumble, or implode.

Theoretically, the Wolves could have won big with Towns playing alongside Edwards, but Towns’ salary probably would have meant the departure of another core player, like Naz Reid or Jaden McDaniels, either of whom would have been difficult to replace.

So to use a New York term, let’s quit the kvetching and just be happy for this version of Towns — the bodega KAT.

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