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Latvian big man Kristaps Porzingis was recently in South Africa for the NBA Africa Game held in Johannesburg in 5 August. Team World beat Team Africa 108 – 97 on the day and Porzingis scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. The 22-year-old has been the subject of much speculation amidst the a sea of changes at the New York Knicks organization. Since the end of last season Phil Jackson has left the club and Steve Mills has been named the President and Scott Perry has been brought in as the General Manager. Porzingis has stayed out of any of the politics plaguing the Knicks, choosing instead to focus on improving his game and playing for the Latvian national team ahead of Eurobasket 2017. “Everything has changed at the Knicks organization. There will be a lot of new things. For myself, I have been working extremely hard this summer to come back next season and be a better player than I was last season. It’s still early to talk about that (the new season) and now the focus is on the national team. But I’m excited as much for the national team as I am for the next season, so I just love basketball,” said Porzingis recently.
Porzingis has now made his debut for Latvia and hopes it is the beginning of a successful term with the national team. He has matured a lot in the last few years since making his NBA debut in 2015. Being drafted with the number four pick of the draft of that year put a lot of pressure on him, but he’s adjusted to the expectations. He was dubbed a ‘unicorn’ for his combination of size, he’s 7’3”, and skill. He’s focused on just improving as a player and showcasing what he can really to do on the court to the world at large. Porzingis is keen to learn and he spent some time while in Johannesburg to glean as much knowledge as possible from Dallas Mavericks great Dirk Nowitzki. The two trained and ran drills together in the build up to the Africa Game with the Latvian leaning on the experienced German for advice, “We were just competing, we were just shooting and we were doing a little bit of his drills. His shooting drills. I want to try to learn as much as I can from him. I’ve been asking him questions all the time.”
The Africa Game was a great occasion with Basketball without Borders and some community outreach work taking place before the game itself. Porzingis had a blast on the African continent on his first visit, taking in a safari or two along the way. He was impressed with what he saw and experienced from a basketball perspective especially. From seeing the benefit of having camps like Basketball without Borders and developmental programs like Jr. NBA to playing in front of a sold out Ticketpro Dome. Porzingis felt all of this matters as the NBA grows the love of the game worldwide. “You know these kinds of things matter, especially a big event like this. People really like basketball over here. They just don’t have enough information. Enough ways to watch it or follow it. So I think this is a great event and we can grow the game of basketball here in Africa.”
By Cyrus Rogers
