By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Here’s what Janis Porzingis said in an interview to the magazine “Sporta Avize” as reported by Latvian website Sportacentrs:
On Kristaps skipping the 2017 exit meetings:
“That wasn’t an emotional decision. It wasn’t a spontaneous action. We had been thinking about it for a long time and it was considered an honest, well-thought decision we came up with together. It was a logical next step for us, without which we would’ve been in one situation, but now after we did it – we are in another”
“It’s interesting how many people who are even somehow involved in all of this, have criticized it afterward as something so unprofessional!! Just look at Melo, how he is handling things… And I’m thinking, “wait a minute”. In reality, if he for once decided to fight for something, we wouldn’t be in this situation and Kristaps wouldn’t be forced to take all the damage on himself. It wasn’t done for some personal interest or ambitions or dislike for someone, it was for the sake of overall peace. It should have been a task for the team’s leaders, but Melo and people around him never tried to change anything.”
On a new contract with the New York Knicks:
“First – it’s a long time before signing a new deal. “Second – there are so many things that can happen in the season, so it’s a waste of time thinking about it now. He needs to be healthy and play his game. And even that is conditional since we know that (Joel) Embiid was recently awarded a maximum contract for 30 games.”
“The most important question here is this: What do you really want to achieve in your career? Because money – if Kristaps performs at least on his normal level, is gonna come. We are more focused on some other values and not just to quickly sign a new contract so we can collect the money. That’s definitely not our goal, so we won’t be feverishly counting minutes or counting points. You can’t escape the reality and the Knicks must also see that. From their point of view, Kristaps is the focal point at the moment so you cannot upset him much or otherwise, at the end of the season, he will say “it’s not so cool here.” The second question is: Who is the New York audience coming to watch now? To a large extent, it’s Kristaps. So the organization has to take that into account.”