Kristaps Porzingis did not play in Friday’s preseason game against his former Knicks at Madison Square Garden, but he still enjoys returning to the City he called home for the first three seasons of his career.
“The Garden was just incredible,” Porzingis said, via Ian Begley of SNY. “That was some of the most fun I’ve had.”
Porzingis looked like the NBA’s next star and the cornerstone of the Knicks’ rebuild after he was drafted fourth overall in 2015, but injuries and an eventual trade request brought a sudden end to his tenure in New York, a turn of events he said he would have handled differently if he could do it again.
“It’s hard to say but yeah looking back now, things could have been done differently for sure,” Porzingis said. “Now that I’m older, smarter and understand what happened back then, it could have been done differently for sure.”
After the trade to the Mavericks was announced, Porzingis posted on Instagram that “the truth would come out” when it came to why he was traded and wanted out of New York. He said that also would be done differently if he were to have another chance, but it was all part of growing up in the NBA, as Porzingis was 23 at the time.
“I think what we should have done is come out with our side at that time,” Porzingis said. “Some people advised not to put anything out and focus on Dallas. So that’s what we did at the moment. If there’s only one side, then that’s the truth. We should have said something at that moment.
“Now it’s okay, it’s in the past. It went how it went. It wasn’t the best way to go about it. Like I said, we could’ve done it differently. But everybody makes mistakes. And New York is New York. It’s crazy, you know.”
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