Coming out of a tumultuous exit from his end-of-season interviews with the media and the New York Knicks front office, Kristaps Porzingis made the most of his summer, working out and playing for the Latvian national team at EuroBasket.
Despite coming off a second-best performance with 34 points in a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Slovenia, Porzingis wasn't happy with the way things panned out for his home country.
“Next time you see me in a national team jersey I will be completely a different player,” Porzingis said in Latvian, according to a translation by journalist Andrejs Silins via Marc Berman of The New York Post. “I want to say to all fans — this is only the beginning of Latvian basketball.”
Latvia went toe-to-toe against Goran Dragic and 18-year-old phenom Luka Doncic, who mustered wins against Spain and Serbia to crown themselves European champions for the first time in country history.
The Knicks' unicorn was disillusioned with the result after falling 103-97 to Slovenia last week.
“We wanted to fight for medals. I never thought we would stop right here,’’ Porzingis said after elimination. “It’s a disgusting feeling.”
New York's front office, with no stake in the ultimate winner of the competition other than its prized unicorn, was more than pleased with his performance under bright lights. The organization sent out plenty of scouts and team personnel to observe Porzingis during his international tournament as well as center Willy Hernangomez (Spain) and forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas (Lithuania).
Porzingis' relationship with head coach Jeff Hornacek was “radioactive” at best and could prove something to watch for coming into this season.
For now, the team is happy his pre-tournament injury is a thing of the past and are OK with his time of return to the States as long as he makes training camp in time.
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