Heartbreak: The head coach of Kristaps Porzingis announced his leaving due to comingback of…
“Excited” and “happy” were the two terms that Kristaps Porzingis used a lot during his roughly 20-minute news conference on Thursday. It was evident that Porzingis was excited about the chance to join a contender in the Boston Celtics after spending the first eight years of his NBA career playing in a total of 10 playoff games and never making it past the first round.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps
Boston — Kristaps Porzingis was still unsure if he would be traded to the Boston Celtics when he finally went to sleep on Thursday morning, at around four in the morning.
The original three-team agreement involving the LA Clippers that Porzingis had thought would send him to Boston had collapsed. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he had no choice but to go to bed and await the outcome of the day.
With a wide smile, Porzingis said, “It was a crazy day for me,” while seated on a stage on the Auerbach Center practice court on Thursday afternoon between Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. “Just as I was ready to turn in for the night, I got word that the trade had fallen through, which kept me up a little bit longer.
“But then, by like 4 a.m. back home, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll go to sleep and see what happens.'”
way to the Celtics as part of a three-team trade that also included the Memphis Grizzlies and the Washington Wizards, his previous team.
“[When I woke] up in the morning, I saw that it happened; the trade happened,” said Porzingis, “and I was just extremely excited and extremely happy.”
“Excited” and “happy” were the two terms that were used a lot during Porzingis’ roughly 20-minute news conference on Thursday. Porzingis made it known that he was excited about the chance to join a contender after playing in a total of 10 playoff games during the first eight years of his NBA career and never making it past the first round.
Porzingis responded, “[It was] an opportunity to play for a really good team already and be able to add to that,” when asked.
As it turned out, the agreement was reached, and Porzingis was able to secure what factors influenced his choice to exercise his $36 million player option in order to make the trade possible. “And hopefully to help these guys, make their lives easier, and being on a high-level organization like Boston, a historic franchise, an iconic franchise, it made it extremely easy for me to make that decision.”
