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."
Interesting new information on the Porzingis trade from today’s JPM speaker event with Scott Perry and Steve Mills
KP threatened to go back to Europe if not traded within 7 days
Scott and Steve had trade offers lined up dating back to last September pic.twitter.com/JGp1EQQrUV
Eventually, the Knicks sent Porzingis, who missed out on the 2018-19 season due to an ACL injury, to theDallas Mavericks back in January.
The team has acquired guard Dennis Smith Jr., center DeAndre Jordan, guard/forward Wesley Matthews and two future first round draft picks from Dallas in exchange for forward Kristaps Porzingis, and guards Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee.
In other news, Porzingis was recently involved in an altercation while he was in Europe.
The Mavericks are investigating All-Star Kristaps Porzingis’ altercation in Europe over weekend and current understanding is he was jumped at a club, assaulted and hit by objects, @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium has learned.
T-shirt déchiré, visage ouvert et embrouille entre hommes en sortie de bar/boîte : les débuts de vacances de Kristaps Porziņģis ne se passe pas exactement pour le mieux. pic.twitter.com/AjbKy3XKyd
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:
Mavericks officials investigated the incident in Latvia, have spoken at length to Porzingis and are satisfied that the incident was a case of the 7-foot-3 23-year-old being "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
