New York Knicks All-Star Kristaps Porzingis is opening up to the media about his injury and the mindset he’s taking in his recovery.
In February, Knicks’ star Kristaps Porzingis went down with one of the most infamous injuries in basketball. He tore his left ACL which guarantees a long and difficult recovery. After not speaking with the media for quite some time, Porzingis finally came out of the shadows to let reporters in on his thoughts on his recovery.
Per Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, Porzingis assured New York, “I believe I’m going to come back better and stronger.”
Porzingis would go on to say:
And if this ever had to happen this is probably not to say a good moment, but if it had to happen, it happened now and I’m going to be able to use these last two months of the season and the whole offseason to work my body. Not only just getting bigger and stronger but just my movement, my body, the way my
body moves and all those things.
That’s going to be big for me also because of how long I am and things like that. So I think I don’t know how many months I have, I’m going to use it as efficiently as I can to come back better, to come back as a better player and also work on my mind. Not only physically but just work on my mind and come back sharp.
This is fantastic news for New Yorkers, whose Knickerbockers have been on a steep slide since Porzingis went down. The Knicks are 1-12 in the 13 games since that fateful night against Milwaukee.
Kristaps was having a magnificent season before going down, even being named an All-Star for the first time. Through 48 games, he was averaging 22.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, a league-high 2.4 blocks, and a career-high 39 percent from three-point range. The stats alone don’t do justice to what the 7-foot-3 Latvian was doing to opposing defenses this year, including a wide assortment of clutch buckets leading to wins. Porzingis was simply on fire this season.
Other notable injuries and absences have set the Knicks back this year. Tim Hardaway Jr. missed 20 straight games due to a stress fracture and Joakim Noah has only played six times this season. Noah fell out of Jeff Hornacek’s rotations due to the log-jam at the center position. He was later exiled after an altercation with Hornacek.
Although the 2017-2018 year isn’t turning out as bright as New York had hoped, the Knicks will be in the position to draft another great piece this offseason. Once KP returns, they will get right back to where they were earlier this season. Better things are on the way for the Knicks.
