Kristaps Porzingis Broke His Silence About His Deleted Clippers Tweet

Kristaps Porzingis met Neymar on Saturday, then he tweeted about the NBA team he might be playing for this fall. As you can guess, it’s not the New York Knicks. Porzingis sent out a quickly-deleted tweet that spurred speculation that the 21-year-old may be on the way out of New York even quicker than Carmelo Anthony.

All the tweet said was “Los Angeles Clippers” with three smiley faces. A few different folks saw the tweet and captured it via different Twitter clients, so it seems like this was legit.

It was, however, quickly deleted. By late Saturday night, his most recent tweet was a photo of him swapping jerseys with FC Barcelona star Neymar.

All this trade speculation comes from a report that Porzinigs skipped his exit interview with the Knicks after the season ended. Porzingis had expressed his frustration with the Knicks earlier in the year, and further reports implied that teams came calling trying to talk trade with New York and Phil Jackson after the news broke.

It likely would take a significant return for the Knicks to consider trading Porzingis, who is entering the third season of his four-year rookie contract.

A versatile, 7-foot-3 forward/center, Porzingis is viewed by many in the organization as a future franchise cornerstone.

But he had been frustrated by the drama and dysfunction surrounding the team this season, according to team sources. He has said several times that he wants to remain in New York, but with an important caveat: His top priority is to win.

Any kind of trade for Porzingis would be a huge overhaul for the Knicks. He’s clearly their most valuable asset, and with Anthony essentially getting smoked out of New York by Phil Jackson it would be a major loss for the Knicks if Porzingis were to leave, too. Not even getting Porzingis through his rookie deal in New York would be a significant embarrassment for the franchise, but I guess there’s nothing new about that, really.

So far, this is almost certainly just a silly mistake by Porzingis. Only time will tell if this tweet was something more prescient.
Update: Porzingis has finally tweeted for the first time since the incident. The Knicks claimed that Porzingis was asleep when the tweet went out and claimed hacking, and that seems to be the story Porzingis is sticking to as well. His defense? That he doesn’t even use that emoji.

2017 is great because this is a legitimate defense. Now, he could’ve spent that last hour clearing the smiley emoji off of his most recent emojis list, but either way it’s a fantastic strategy by Kristaps. Also “Cmon B” is proof that he truly is a New Yorker now, which only strengthens his case that he wouldn’t have tweeted that.