Lee Jenkins' excellent profile of Kristaps Porzingis debuted Tuesday. In it, we learn the gritty details of Kristaps' rugged childhood basketball experience:
Kristaps, the baby of the family, started playing in first grade for Edvins Sprude, who once coached [Kristaps's mother} Ingrida. Sprude could be brutal. "He made me cry," Kristaps recalls. "But I loved it." Sprude put Kristaps at point guard, and the oversized floor general polished his handle on the cracked wood out back. [Kristaps's brother] Mu0101u200brtins threw elbows at him, impersonating Kaspars Kambala, the Latvian basketball player-boxer who treated the floor as a ring at UNLV.