KNICKS STAR INJURED AGAIN:
ACL injury derails Knicks and their young All-Star
The devastating news regarding Kristaps Porzingis officially arrived just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday, a date and a time that Porzingis, the Knicks and their tortured fan base won’t soon forget.
Torn anterior cruciate ligament, left knee.
The injury puts to bed any dream of reaching the playoffs this season and there is no telling how it could jeopardize next year for the Knicks or what it means for Porzingis’ career.
Porzingis will have surgery within the next 10 days and the road to recovery could be anywhere from eight months to a year at least.
The Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum had surgery to repair a torn ACL and was sidelined 14 months. Zach LaVine was out 12 months with the same injury. Derrick Rose 14 months. Ricky Rubio nine. And Milwaukee’s Jabari Parker returned last Friday after missing 11 months following a second ACL surgery on the same knee.
“He can come back from it and he’ll be the same player again,” Parker told the Daily News following the Milwaukee Bucks 103-89 victory over the Knicks on Tuesday. “He can do it.”
Porzingis, selected to his first AllStar Game two weeks ago, will be replaced on the team by a player chosen by the league office. Whether he heads to Los Angeles to participate in All-Star Weekend is unclear but it doesn’t really matter.
It will be a while before Porzingis returns to being a full-time player. Regaining his All-Star form is
another question that only time can answer.
The sight of Porzingis clutching his left knee in agony and slapping the floor after dunking over Giannis Antetokounmpo took the air and the optimism right out of Madison Square Garden early in the second quarter.
Within minutes the Knicks franchise player was helped to the locker room, gave a thumbs up as he disappeared and was last seen limping out of the Garden, on his way to the Hospital for Special Surgery for an MRI.
For any Knicks fan old enough to remember the knee injuries suffered by Bernard King or even Antonio McDyess you knew to hope for the absolute best and brace yourself for the worst.
MSG Network had a shot of Dr. Lisa Callahan, the Knicks Chief Medical Officer, debriefing team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry in the second half. You couldn’t hear what the executives were saying but their body language screamed at you to expect the worst.
In all likelihood, the Knicks doctors had a sense that Porzingis suffered a major injury before sending him to the hospital for additional tests. The MRI confirmed it.
When the Knicks drafted Porzingis fourth overall three years ago the fear was that his slender 7-foot-3 frame could not withstand the rigors of the NBA. Entering this season Porzingis had already missed 26 games with various injuries.
This season, Porzingis had missed seven games including a meeting two weeks ago against the Golden State Warriors with “left knee irritation.”
With Thursday’s trading deadline looming, the Mills-Perry regime has a full blown crisis on its hands. Joakim Noah, Phil Jackson’s $72 million gift to the fans, is in limbo, having been sent home by the team two weeks ago.
Tim Hardaway Jr., who missed six weeks with a stress injury, limped off the court in the fourth quarter clutching his left shin. Xrays were negative. And now Porzingis. Especially Porzingis. The Knicks have been selling this idea of rebuilding while sticking with veteran players in the hopes of reaching the playoffs. With Porzingis done for the season, the proper course is to go young and play for a high draft pick.
This isn’t Patrick Ewing having his right wrist broken in December of 1997. That veteran, battle-tested Knicks team finished seventh in the Eastern Conference that season, upset Miami in the first round and then lost to Indiana with Ewing back in the lineup.
Mills and Perry have until 3 p.m. Thursday to make moves and one of those players they are hoping to trade is second-year forward Willy Hernangomez. You may remember that back in September Hernangomez was being advertised by the front office as one of the “core” players for the future.
This week, Hernangomez asked to be traded.
“All I can say is that I want to be somewhere where I can have minutes,” Hernangomez told reporters on Tuesday, “where I can play and where I can keep developing.”
Porzingis created playing time for his good friend. Time is all that Porzingis has for a while. And that’s a damn shame.