Two and a half hours before game time, Kristaps Porzingis was testing the Madison Square Garden rims, finding them rather welcoming and friendly.
“My shot is good,” he said Wednesday evening after launching numerous long-range jumpers for the first time at the self-proclaimed world’s most famous arena.
He later sat at his dressing stall — the one vacated last season by Amar’e Stoudemire — and said that he was ready for the expectations and issues that come with projections, or prayers, for him as the new potential savior of the Knicks.
He is only 20, a boyish-faced Latvian giant at 7 feet 3 inches, but Porzingis is as engaging as any native attendee of an American institution of higher dribbling, surprisingly adept with colloquial and cultural customs.