The NBA world was shaken to its core when New York Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis went down a few days ago with a season-ending ACL injury.

Porzingis was one of the bright spots for a Knicks team that was not going anywhere this season. He is now considered the face of the franchise ever since Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

But when Porzingis went down, the hopes of the Knicks and their fans all turned to doubt and disappointment, with no telling when the glitz and glamor of the New York's most popular team will be in a position to win again.

The plan for Porzingis is to get healthy as soon as humanly possible, and the fan base got its first glimpse of that on Saturday. Porzingis will have surgery on his knee on Tuesday, per Ian Begley of ESPN.

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While Porzingis is injured and won't play NBA basketball for a long time, this is at least an indication of when the Unicorn will be back. ACL injuries typically take about a year to come back from.

Tuesday is Feb. 13. If the surgery goes well, that should be the start of this recovery time. If one maps out a calendar year from the surgery, that's Feb. 13, 2019 — after the midpoint of the NBA season.

Lately, NBA players have been coming back sooner from these types of injuries. But there's no telling what will happen during the recovery process or how Porzingis will respond to rehab.

So at least fans can pencil in a year for when their savior will make his triumphant return to the basketball court. But they should also have their erasers at the ready.