Knicks President Steve Mills claims that All-Star forward Kristaps Porzingis, who was born in the country of Latvia, threatened to go back to Europe if he wasn't traded.
To top it all off, Porzingis reportedly gave the franchise just seven days to make it happen.
"[Porzingis] point-blank said to us, 'I don’t want to be here. I'm not going to re-sign with the Knicks and I’m going to give you seven days to trade me or I’m going back to Europe,'" Mills revealed on Wednesday. Mills continued: "Fortunately for us, we had a number of deals lined up. We just started a trade call as soon as he walked out of the office."
Eventually, the Knicks sent Porzingis, who missed out on the 2018-19 season due to an ACL injury, to theDallas Mavericks back in January.
In other news, Porzingis was recently involved in an altercation while he was in Europe.
The Dallas Mavericks investigated the fight he got into in Latvia and determined that the recently acquired player was not at fault. According to sources who spoke to The Dallas Morning News, Porzingis has been cleared by the team.
Via their report: