Breathe.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

BUT PORZINGIS…

Breathe.

Sometimes, on this massive clusterfuck of a planet, filled with people who are massive clusterfucks, who do clusterfucky things and get clusterfucky outcomes on clusterfucking consistent basis, a clusterfuck happens.

Today was one such day in which a clusterfuck took place.

Reports trickled out that Kristaps Porzingis might, sort of, kind of, be looking potentially, or hoping for, in an ideal world, if somehow possible, to maybe kind of want a trade.

It was big news, partially because of how vague it was. It seemed like one of those things where Porzingis says he’s unhappy, everyone freaks out, and then everything gets sorted out in a few days.

But like I said…

Cluster. Fuck.

Within an hour (at least I think, I refuse to check) of Porzingis’s apparent displeasure, a deal between the Knicks and Dallas Mavericks emerged that was as Marc Stein put it, “imminent.”

Clearly, this didn’t happen overnight, or in a day. It’s been in the works for a while, whatever that means. The only thing that matters is that this trade didn’t happen in the improbable timeline that the Knicks would like you to believe, which is generally the case in the NBA.

Things are either decided or worked on slowly, way in advance, or they come together in clusterfuck-like fashion in a matter of moments. For as much as this move feels like the latter, it’s assuredly the former.

Everything about the Knicks seems to happen in a way that produces bafflement, indignation, and pure, unadulterated disappointment.

But life goes on.

I was as shocked as every other person who heard this news, and my day has been cluster fucked up by it. But, I’m more sad about Porzingis leaving than I am about anything else. I have not disavowed the New York Knicks. There’s a chance to do that every day, and this provided a prime opportunity for me to get out.

But the joy in sports comes through suffering. It’s why Yankees fans are effectively sociopaths with no comprehension for the rule of law or common decency (maybe that’s a sliiiiight exaggeration). They expect to win just about every year, and anything less is a disappointment.

My modus operandi is to expect massive, nuclear disappointment at every turn so I’m not taken by surprise with my teams. And yet, on a clusterfuck planet run by clusterfuck people, those expectations get blown to smithereens in a moment.

Still, I have hope. Not real, “We’re going to sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and draft Zion Williamson,” hope, but genuine hope.

While it’s easy to seal this trade with a full stamp of disapproval, that’s far too reactionary. The value of a trade is not determined the second it happens, as much as we love to pretend it does. We do this because it’s simple, when trades, like this one, are complex. It feels nice to be able to put something in a neat little box that says “good” or “bad,” then send it off into the rabid, unruly wild of Twitter.

The reality is that this trade could be great for the Knicks.

…

…

And it could also be a monumental disaster the likes of which I have never witnessed in my lifetime. It’s entirely possible.

Like Will Ferrell said on The Office while playing Deangelo Vickers, “It’s either going to be the worst thing you do, or the best thing you do.”

That’s the belief many people are holding about this trade. Boom or bust.

Either the Knicks sign Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving and/or maybe some other star like Jimmy Butler (I hope to the god I don’t believe in that doesn’t happen, but it makes too much sense) and draft Zion Williamson, or they don’t.

Then, Kristaps goes on to form the most dynamic European duo ever seen in NBA history with Luka Doncic. That’s what really hurts most, is that if the Knicks had lost properly last year, they’d have Doncic and Porzingis, a dream that the Mavericks have now realized like an unrealistic NBA 2K trade that you force over the line.

But there are so many permutations to NBA life that the outcome is impossible to predict.

Maybe the Knicks only sign Durant and get screwed over by the new lottery system and draft seventh by winning one too many games.

Maybe they only draft Williamson or Barrett and no free agent comes.

Maybe they get zero free agents and fall back in the draft and receive nothing. That’s the reason for the fear, and it’s entirely valid.

But we won’t know any of this until this summer and beyond. Maybe Porzingis is never the same and he was never going to sign with the Knicks (his brother seems like an impossibly bad agent, so the idea that he’d turn down a max contract isn’t out of the question).

Or maybe he’s back to his old self and creates a Mavericks dynasty. But at the same time, the Knicks could get lucky with those 2021 and 2023 draft picks, get lucky in this year’s draft and sign some massive free agents this or next summer.

The point of all these maybe’s is that we don’t know the value of this trade. It’s entirely valid for everyone, especially Knicks fans, to be writing this off as a cataclysmic mistake. The Knicks are prone to that, and they just traded away the best player they’ve drafted since Patrick Ewing.

But defining value in a trade like this takes time. And as of right now, this trade is like Shrodinger’s Cat. The box hasn’t been opened, and until that point, it’s both terrible and amazing, disastrous and ingenious.

That box will eventually be opened this summer, but until then…

Breathe.