Kristaps Porzingis blew off an end-of-season meeting with team president Phil Jackson, but that does not mean he wants to be traded, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes.
“Of course,” Porzingis said when asked if he wants to remain a Knick. “I love New York. I love New York.”
The team never received an explanation on why the big man decided to skip his scheduled meeting, a source tells Berman. The scribe hears that Porzingis is upset with how the organization has been run–especially the team’s dealings with his mentor, Carmelo Anthony. The 21-year-old declined to go into why he missed the meeting when asked on Wednesday.
“It’s not the right moment to comment on anything [about it],” he said. “I don’t want to say anything.’’
Last week, Porzingis said that he wants the franchise to have a clear direction. “No one’s comfortable with losing,” Porzingis said. “If it means going in the right direction and doing the right thing, let’s do that. But just having no idea the direction, then it’s not going to work out. The direction has to be clear what we want to do.”
During Jackson’s Good Friday press conference, he said that no one on the team is untouchable, which includes Porzingis. Berman notes that the Knicks will be hard-pressed to find equal value for the big man in a trade, adding the 21-year-old has a chance to become a star.
A source tells Berman that Jackson doesn’t feel good about Porzingis rebelling. “It wasn’t right,” said one individual close to Jackson. “But Phil went through this with Kobe [Bryant] and Andrew [Bynum], when they were still young but started to sprout their opinions and rebelled. It worked for Kobe. Hopefully this will make Kristaps better in the long run.”
Porzingis vows to “live in the gym” this summer, though he’ll spend most of it abroad. He leaves for Latvia on Thursday.
Well maybe Phil shouldn’t be such an ass and Porzingis wouldn’t have felt inclined to act the way he did. The fact that Phil has a “source” close to him saying “it’s not right” is mind blowing to me but I guess I shouldn’t put anything past him at this point. I think Phil has the early stages of Alzheimer’s or something because he has some nerve saying stuff like that after all the stuff he has pulled just in the past few months alone. I’m an OKC fan but I feel so sorry for Knicks fans and their players who have to be lead and orchestrated by this idiot.
Celtics fan but same.
As a Knicks fan, I’m counting down until he leaves. Aside from drafting Hernangomez and Porzingis, he’s been a major bust and has severely hurt the franchise.
Agree 100%
as a lakers fan I love Phil, as an NBA fan he’s doing beyond terrible as a GM. Phil is just the flavor of the month bad guy, Dolan is what causes Knicks fans true heart ache
Phil is back for 2 more years, I don’t want Melo to leave though.