Knicks Rookie Kristaps Porzingis Comes Close To Achieving Superstardom

New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis very nearly came away as the hero in Wednesday night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, N.0C. After trailing by merely two points, the 7-foot-3 Latvian received an inbound pass with 0.6 seconds remaining and shot from behind the 3-point line.

His fellow Knicks immediately began celebrating, although the officials quickly reviewed the video and determined that Porzingis’ fingers were still on the ball when the clock hit zero. Thus, the game ended with a heartbreaking 95-93 loss for the Knicks, and a 4-5 record for this season.

Porzingis didn’t argue the call. “There wasn’t a lot to think about it,’’ he said. “Just .1 seconds late. As soon as I let it go, I thought it was going in, thought it was good. We all celebrated. [But] it was late. I saw the pictures on Twitter. A lot of sources say the ball was out and .2 seconds left but you can see the red light was on and the ball was barely still touching my hands.’’

As a matter of fact, a 3-pointer by Porzingis wasn’t even part of the original play that Derek Fisher had drawn up. The Latvian stated that he was supposed to set a high screen to spring Anthony, and then the rookie was set to back-door it to the basket for a potential inbounds lob pass from Lance Thomas. Porzingis quickly realized his teammate was overplaying him, so he improvised and cut to just outside the 3-point line. Porzingis also admitted that he slightly messed up the pass.

The Hornets’ Cody Zeller ended up with the game-winning shot. Spencer Hawes connected with Zeller for the layup over Robin Lopez with 0.6 seconds left.

Porzingis’ big moment was almost compared to a ‘Linsanity’ deal. Ex-Knick Jeremy Lin, in his first season with the Hornets, put up a total of 17 points against the Knicks and a go-ahead bucket inside over Lopez in the last minute.