Porzingis on first career tech: 'I'm not being more aggressive. That's just me'
Kristaps Porzingis is apparently a little more aggressive than we thought he was coming into Tuesday night.
The Knicks may have pulled out 107-101 victory in Atlanta on Tuesday to improve to 17-19 on the season, but there were some bumps along the road. One of them was Kent Bazemore.
Bazemore and Porzingis got in each other's faces during the second half of the Knicks' victory. No punches were thrown. No shoves were extended. But chests may have touched—or at least for the 6-foot-5 Bazemore and 7-foot-3 Porzingis, a chest touched a stomach. The two were separated as they exchanged some words.
Kristaps was about to throw the hands at Bazemore https://t.co/COPor3WN99
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 6, 2016
Both Bazemore and Porzingis earned technical fouls on the play, Porzingis' first tech of his young career, and after the game, the mostly even-tempered rookie had a surprising justification for it, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:
“That’s just me. I’m not being more aggressive,” he said. “That’s just me, my nature, just a heated game.”
Porzingis comes across as this friendly giant, but on-court persona can be distinctly different than the one off it. That's for any player. That's true for any competitor, really.
Still, a Porzingis-Bazemore disagreement (yes, we're calling it a disagreement and nothing more) is entertaining if only because those are two of the most amicable players in the NBA. What could they possibly have been screaming at each other?
"GOOD SHOT!"
"THANKS! HOPE YOUR FAMILY IS DOING WELL!!!"
It was probably something like that. As for the fine Porzingis earned as a result of the technical foul, he'll apparently have a little help from his teammates in taking the financial hit, according to Carmelo Anthony.
