The Wizards were in New York last night. A necessarily special meeting for Kristaps Porzingis, who was the darling of the Garden from 2015 to 2018 when he was whistled by his future fans on the evening of the Draft.
The adventure will have been intense but ended in a brutal way, with a serious injury and a disagreement with the management which led the two parties to separate. As every time he returns to Madison Square Garden, Kristaps Porzingis spoke about this enchanted parenthesis which unfortunately ended badly.
Over time, he now realizes that his exit could have been different.
“It’s hard to say but it’s true that looking back now, things could have been done differently, that’s clear. Now that I’m older, smarter and understand what happened back then, things could have been done differently, that’s for sure.”, did he declare.
At the time, the version of the story boiled down to a meeting with management during which Kristaps Porzingis allegedly questioned the Knicks’ strategy and the legitimacy of his coach, David Fizdale. The interior would then have made it clear that if nothing moved quickly, he would prefer to be traded, which did not drag on.
“We could have done things differently”
After his departure, Kristaps Porzingis let loose on the management, believing that the Knicks deserved better, and promising to give his version of this imbroglio, which he never did. This is KP’s other regret, not having struck the iron when it was still hot.
“I think what we should have done was come out with our version of the facts at that time. Some people advised not to go out and focus on Dallas. That’s what we did. But if there’s only one side to the story, then it becomes the truth.”he added. “We should have said something at that time. Now it’s good, it’s in the past. It happened like that. It was not the best way to proceed. As I said, we could have done things differently. But everyone makes mistakes. And New York remains New York. It’s crazy, you know”.
Madison Square Garden never misses an opportunity to show him his “passion” by whistling cheerfully every time he sets foot in his old garden. That may also be why his coach in Washington, Wes Unseld Jr, spared him that night by leaving him on the bench.
| Kristaps Porzingis | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2015-16 | NYK | 72 | 28 | 42.1 | 33.3 | 83.8 | 1.8 | 5.5 | 7.3 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 14.3 |
| 2016-17 | NYK | 66 | 33 | 45.0 | 35.7 | 78.6 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 7.2 | 1.5 | 3.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 18.1 |
| 2017-18 | NYK | 48 | 32 | 43.9 | 39.5 | 79.3 | 1.3 | 5.3 | 6.6 | 1.2 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 22.7 |
| 2019-20 | DAL | 57 | 32 | 42.7 | 35.2 | 79.9 | 1.8 | 7.7 | 9.5 | 1.8 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 20.4 |
| 2020-21 | DAL | 43 | 31 | 47.6 | 37.6 | 85.5 | 1.9 | 7.0 | 8.9 | 1.6 | 2.7 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 20.1 |
| 2021-22 * | All Teams | 51 | 29 | 45.9 | 31.0 | 86.7 | 2.0 | 6.1 | 8.1 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 20.2 |
| 2021-22 * | DAL | 34 | 30 | 45.1 | 28.3 | 86.5 | 1.9 | 5.8 | 7.7 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 19.2 |
| 2021-22 * | WAS | 17 | 28 | 47.5 | 36.7 | 87.1 | 2.2 | 6.6 | 8.8 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 22.1 |
| Total | 337 | 31 | 44.4 | 35.3 | 82.0 | 1.8 | 6.1 | 7.9 | 1.6 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 18.9 | |
