By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Not only was Boston Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis completely OK with New York Knicks fans booing him several times but he actually liked it.
“I enjoy it, to be honest,” Porzingis said on the boos from the Knicks crowd after the Celtics‘ 116 – 102 road win in New York. He finished the game with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists to help his team secure its eighth straight victory.
This wasn’t the first time that Porzingis heard booing in Madison Square Garden since his departure from New York in 2019 when he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. Yet the longtime rivalry between the Celtics and the Knicks – one of the oldest in the NBA – is the element that boosted the taunting.
“They [boos] went down in my years in Washington,” Porzingis mentioned. “I was still getting booed. But they’ve ramped up a little bit, me being with the Celtics…. I prefer any kind of emotion over no emotion.”
Porzingis had gotten used to that even before his NBA career actually began since there was booing when the Knicks drafted him with the fourth overall pick in 2015. The Latvian player shut down doubters and won fans in his rookie season with the team but the same supporters became disgruntled with his request to be traded a couple of years later.
“If it’s cheers or boos, I want them,” Porzingis added. “Tonight was no different. Big game, (national) TV game, fans were into it and we just took care of business.”