52 Facts About Kristaps Porzingis

Kristaps Porzingis quickly rose through the team's youth ranks and became the figurehead of the senior team by 2013.

Kristaps Porzingis subsequently won the EuroCup Basketball Rising Star award in 2015, where, at age 18, he became the youngest ever recipient of the award.

In New York, Kristaps Porzingis was seen as the Knicks' potential cornerstone, but after disagreements with the front office, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 2019.

In Dallas, Kristaps Porzingis was plagued by injuries during his tenure, and he was traded to the Washington Wizards in 2022.

Kristaps Porzingis followed his parents' footsteps and started to play basketball at age six.

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Kristaps Porzingis played in youth competition with BK Liepajas Lauvas, the most famous club based in hometown of Liepaja, until he was 15 years old.

Kristaps Porzingis debuted for the youth squad on 4 January 2012, against its counterpart from Barcelona, adding 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Kristaps Porzingis represented the Sevilla junior team again at the same tournament in early 2013.

Kristaps Porzingis proved to be more effective in his second year, averaging 16.

On 29 September 2012, Kristaps Porzingis got the opportunity to make an appearance with the club's first team, but was allowed to play just a minute.

Kristaps Porzingis scored his first basket for the senior team on 20 February 2013, in a rematch with Spartak.

Kristaps Porzingis opened his second season on Sevilla's main squad strong in his third game against the EuroLeague team Laboral Kutxa, leading them to a 20-point ACB victory on 2 November 2013.

Kristaps Porzingis notched a career-high 12 points, six rebounds, and four blocks.

Kristaps Porzingis broke his scoring record once more against Real Madrid on 30 November 2013, nearly leading his team to a victory.

Kristaps Porzingis was considered an unfinished product and a top-15 draft pick.

On 4 October 2014, against CB 1939 Canarias, Kristaps Porzingis made his season debut in the Liga ACB, scoring three points in the game.

Kristaps Porzingis tied this record on 18 April 2015, vs Basquet Manresa in the ACB.

On 15 April 2015, Kristaps Porzingis was named the winner of the EuroCup Rising Star Award of the season.

On 16 April 2015, Kristaps Porzingis entered the 2015 NBA draft, according to a report from agent Andy Miller.

Kristaps Porzingis drew interest from teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, who had the No 2 pick and had several personnel that had seen Porzingis play in Spain.

Kristaps Porzingis was compared with players such as Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki, but Darko Milicic, a former lottery selection widely considered a draft bust.

Kristaps Porzingis comes to the NBA with the full understanding that popular basketball culture declares him guilty until proven innocent of the basketball crimes of Darko Milicic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Andrea Bargnani.

On 25 June 2015, Kristaps Porzingis was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the New York Knicks.

Kristaps Porzingis was booed by some New York fans upon being drafted, but vowed to change the fans' opinions on him from negative to positive.

Kristaps Porzingis became the highest drafted Latvian and Baltic player in NBA history.

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Kristaps Porzingis was 3 of 11 from the field and 9 of 12 from the line.

Kristaps Porzingis became the first rookie to reach those totals since Tim Duncan in 1998.

Kristaps Porzingis was one point short of becoming the first rookie since Patrick Ewing to put up 30 points and 10 rebounds in one game for the Knicks.

Kristaps Porzingis finished second in the NBA Rookie of the Year Award voting behind winner Karl-Anthony Towns, and earned NBA All-Rookie First Team honors.

On 31 January 2019, after a meeting with the Knicks left franchise officials with the impression that he wanted to be traded, Kristaps Porzingis was traded alongside Trey Burke, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr.

On 2 March 2020, Kristaps Porzingis was named the Western Conference player of the week, his second time to earn player of the week honors.

Kristaps Porzingis had surgery on his torn lateral meniscus on 9 October 2020.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 16 points in his season debut and was held to a 21-minute restriction.

Kristaps Porzingis became just the sixth player in Dallas Mavericks franchise history to have multiple seasons averaging over 20 points per game, joining Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Luka Doncic, Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki.

However, Kristaps Porzingis' numbers dropped drastically during the first round of the playoffs, averaging 13.

Kristaps Porzingis was disgruntled with his role in the first round series against the Clippers, often being relegated to a decoy or three-point spacing threat.

The 2021 offseason was the first offseason that Kristaps Porzingis was not recovering from injury since entering the league in 2015.

Kristaps Porzingis made his return to action 6 November 2021, against the Boston Celtics.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 10 of his points in the fourth quarter, including a putback dunk to tie the game at 104.

Kristaps Porzingis played with the Latvian youth team and was selected in the 2013 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship All-Tournament Team.

In 2017, Kristaps Porzingis played for Latvia at EuroBasket 2017, where he averaged 23.

Against Slovenia, Kristaps Porzingis scored a tournament-high 34 points despite playing in foul trouble throughout the game.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 16 of his 34 points in the final period to help Latvia cut Slovenia's 13-point lead to two with two minutes remaining.

Kristaps Porzingis has been compared to Dirk Nowitzki, with the pair having both been groomed in Europe before entering the NBA.

Kristaps Porzingis was born to parents who had experience playing the game of basketball.

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Kristaps Porzingis's older brother, Janis, played professionally, while Martins, who is approximately 15 years older than his youngest sibling, was an avid player.

Janis Porzingis competed at the European second tier EuroCup level, the same level in Europe that Kristaps later played at, in one game, and played European professional club basketball in various national leagues, including the Italian League, for more than 10 years.

Kristaps Porzingis is known to mentor his younger brother on and off the court and often called him after playing games for Cajasol Sevilla in Spain.

Kristaps Porzingis is thus fluent in three different languages, including English.

Kristaps Porzingis made the switch to Adidas after partnering with Nike for his rookie season.

Kristaps Porzingis is a football fan and supports his hometown team FK Liepaja, as well as Real Madrid and former club Sevilla.

Kristaps Porzingis is an avid fan of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which he plays regularly.