By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Kristaps Porzingis went through a lot in the final stretch of the 2023-24 season, winning the first-ever NBA Championship for a Latvian player with the Boston Celtics right before undergoing surgery “to repair a torn retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon”, as it was announced.
While his recovery – expected to last for at least 5-6 months – is taking place in his home country, Brad Stevens provided updates on the 29-year-old player’s condition in an interview with the Boston Globe.
The former head coach and now President of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics talked about Kristaps Porzingis. “He’s in Latvia. He’s starting to do more and more and more. He was in a boot for a while there, but every indication is he’s progressing well and he’s on the right timeline. But it’s going to be a while”, he first commented about the former Dallas Mavericks forward.
Then, he came back to deciding to have Kristaps Porzingis on the court for Game 5 of the NBA Finals. “He was going to have to have surgery regardless. He was moving better than he was before Games 3 and 4 and had probably gotten more used to it. And the outcome wasn’t going to change whether he played or not after that moment. It was just, really, could he do it? I was pretty impressed that he did”, he said.
During the 2023-24 NBA season with the Boston Celtics, the No.4 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Due to his physical status, he wasn’t able to help Latvia get to the Olympic Games by winning the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA Basketball