Kristaps Porzingis Has An Achilles Injury And The Knicks Aren’t Sure When He’ll Return


The single best thing about watching the 2016-17 New York Knicks has been Kristaps Porzingis. Nothing that happens over the course of a Knicks game – save for maybe the faces Jeff Hornacek makes when he’s mad – is more fun than watching the team’s 7’3 budding superstar show why he’s such an intriguing prospect on a near-nightly basis.

But lately, Porzingis has hit a bit of a rough patch. On Thursday night, Porzingis was in street clothes as the Knicks took on Chicago due to a sore left achilles. This is worrisome for the team because Porzingis missed three games earlier this year for the same injury – in fact, Hornacek said the team is unsure how long he’ll be sidelined this time.

According to the New York Daily News, Hornacek said he’s going to trust Porzingis and his feeling on whether he can play on the bum wheel.

“That was a pretty good little break (Porzingis had last time he nursed Achilles injury), and he was able to come back. Now it flared up again,” Hornacek said. “So the trainers will continue to look at it. Somehow if it ends up being off and on, that’s no great for us. If he comes out there and says I can play tonight, we’re not going to say no necessarily. We got to trust the players because we can’t really have that feeling of what it’s like in his Achilles. So he’s got to be honest with his assessment if he can play or not. We’ll kind of work with the trainers and look at it that way and make decisions.

“Again, we rely on the trainers for that stuff. Their thoughts are it’s sore and aches, but it’s not like there’s a little tear in there and he can tear it worse. It’s just a matter of the stiffness, probably more of a strain. They don’t think it’s a concern If he says he can play and he feels good that he’s going to make it worse.

Of course there’s nothing Porzingis can do about this, but this injury came at a rough time for the Knicks, which are 1-9 over their last 10 games and are rapidly plummeting down the Eastern Conference standings. They’re still only 2.5 games behind the eight seed, which is a silver lining, but it’s hard to imagine that they’ll be able to compete for a playoff bid unless Porzingis is healthy. If you’re a Knicks fan – or, really, if you’re just a basketball fan who appreciates the big man’s game – you have to hope Porzingis will come back sooner rather than later.

(Via New York Daily News)

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