30 May 2016

30 May 2016

2016-05-30T15:26:39+00:00.

By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohooops.net

Kristaps Porzingis spend the weekend in Athens for the Antetokounbros streetball event, he visited Greece for the first time, but his mind is fixed in New York.

The goal is simple and obvious as he said in Eurohoops: “My number one goal is to win the championship one day”.

The Knicks missed the playoffs this season, but Porzingis wants this to change: “The championship. That’s all we have in our heads, but we have to go step by step. We are not going to win a championship in one day. We have to start building, we have to first make it to the playoffs. That’s the number one goal right now. Get to the playoffs and then go game by game, day by day. It’s not easy what we want to achieve, but I think that we, the fans and the organization has something to look forward to. I think we are growing and one day we want to win a championship, that’s it”.

After all, playing for the New York Knicks, it’s a dream come true for him. If someone said to him when he was a child that he would be a fan favorite in New York, he would think that he was crazy: “I wouldn’t believe it! I would say that this is pretty much impossible. And especially New York, because I really wanted to play for New York, that was my dream. And to hear my name in the draft ceremony, picked by the New York Knicks… I mean this was a dream come true for me. I would never imagine it before, when I was 10 years old, dreaming about the NBA, that I would actually be there, playing for the team that I really loved”.

The Latvian rookie sensation had also some interesting things to say about his hosts, Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo. “What Giannis is doing on the basketball court is unbelievable. Those long steps, Euro-steps, I don’t that there’s anybody who can do those moves that well that he is doing it. His lenght and athleticism all together, he is pretty much unstoppable. He is getting better every year so it’s pretty scary”. As for his former teammate in the Knicks, Thanasis, and if he can be an established player in the NBA, he added: “I believe so. I believe that what will establish Thanasis in the NBA is his work ethic. He is an unbelievable worker. He doesn’t stop working ever. And that’s what’s going to take him to the next level and keep him there”.

Watch his full exclusive interview on Eurohoops, during his visit in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.