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Kristaps Porzingis wasted little time after returning to his native Latvia last week, announcing in a Monday press conference that he will indeed represent his home country in this summer’s Eurobasket tournament.
Official: Kristaps Porzingis WILL PLAY for Latvia in #EuroBasket2017 pic.twitter.com/RCHd0PlOQF
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Porzingis made no secret of the fact that he wanted to play for Latvia this time around. The Knicks convinced him to skip last summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament, but their opinions probably didn’t hold as much sway following the cruel joke that was the 2016-17 season.
Porzingis: During the season me and Kuzminskas joked around about playing against each other in exhibition game before the EuroBasket
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Porzingis vs. Kuzminskas. Sounds like a damn monster movie.
Janis Porzingis: We have already made an agreement with Federation about insurance
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Wooo! Insurance!
Porzingis: We are in super tough group in EuroBasket
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Porzingis did talk about his professional club for a bit during the press conference, and it wasn’t super positive, as you can imagine.
Porzingis: Last season was a lot harder but I learned a lot from it.
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Porzingis: Rookie season was more interesting and feeling-wise there was a lot more positivity
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
Holy crap...his rookie season featured his head coach (Derek Fisher) crossing the country during pre-season and getting punched by Matt Barnes, as well as a mid-season coaching change which left the team in the hands of Kurt Rambis. And that was the more positive season!
At least Kristaps had some nice things to say about Joakim Noah’s leadership.
Porzingis: Rose is very quiet, Melo is mellow, Noah was the vocal leader we needed. Unfortunately,he didn't play at the level he once played
— Andrejs Silins (@AndrejsSilins) April 24, 2017
That’s worth something, right?
Anyway, good luck in Eurobasket, Kristaps. We’ll be rooting for you.