New York Knicks fans cried when the commissioner of the best basketball league in the world announced that a young, thin, lanky Latvian guy with a difficult American pronunciation name Porzingis was chosen as their team by draft. This guy took less than a year to declare himself and silence all the skeptics.
First year with champion ambitions
What is the phenomenon of this player? To begin with, we note that Kristaps Porzingis, whose growth is 221 centimeters, which even by basketball standards is a huge indicator, is considered one of the most promising young players in the league. The 21-year-old center was chosen under the final fourth number by a team from the same state. Despite the fears of most experts, this guy immediately, from the first games, began to prove that he was ready to work out his contract to the maximum. Kristaps literally broke into the strongest basketball league in the world with a hurricane and, using his own talent and zeal, turned the once rather weak New York Knicks into the Larry O'Brien Cup contenders. Porzingis Kristaps is a man who was booed by his own fans at the beginning of the season, and now the income from the sales of his T-shirts is second only to NBA legends such as Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
A little about KP
Kristaps, like many European basketball players, is called by the first letters of the name and surname. The Latvian newcomer was immediately given the simple nickname "KP", which is pronounced much easier than his real name. Porzingis Kristaps is a very modest and well-mannered guy. It is unlikely that loud statements and aggressive attacks against opponents or referees will sound from his lips, but nevertheless some meticulous journalists manage to find out some information about him. At the moment, everything in the young guy’s head is the same as in the old song: first thing, first thing ... basketball, and then the girls. According to Porzingis Kristaps, first-year-olds in the NBA do not have a personal life, basketball takes all their free time. 24 hours a day, this talented guy gives to his beloved business: work in the gym, training in the pool and arena, as well as much, much more. The goal is one - the championship.
Latvian Afro-braids
In his youth, Porzingis Kristaps wore an interesting hairstyle. And many journalists begin the conversation with the question of his already-famous Afro-braids. Everyone is interested in only one thing: well, where does the Latvian boy get such an extravagant hairstyle? The basketball player explains this with a long-standing dispute with his brothers - Janis (by the way, also a professional basketball player) and Martins. In childhood, the guys argued who would not cut their hair for longer. After a couple of months, the brothers could not stand it and surrendered, and Kristaps, as a child, could not decide on the future hairstyle and just decided to grow his hair further, and there, as they say, “go and go.” Plus, the famous NBA mods such as Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, who are also big fans of braids, inspired confidence in choosing the right hairstyle even more.
Kristaps Porzingis, whose photo flashes on the covers of many sports publications, does not forget about the main goal of his sports career. Now the thoughts of Latvian talent are completely and completely subordinated to one single goal - the championship in the national basketball association. This guy falls asleep and wakes up with only one thought - to become better, to become more useful, to become more effective. Five, maybe ten years will pass, and who knows, maybe this player will write his name in the history of the best league in the world!