Kristaps Porzingis was officially introduced as the newest member of the Boston Celtics during his press conference Thursday at the Auerbach Center.
Porzingis was acquired last week in a blockbuster three-team trade that sent Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies and both Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala to the Washington Wizards. The veteran big man allowed the deal to go through by exercising his $36 million player option for next season.
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After showing off his new No. 8 Celtics jersey, Porzingis shared how he reacted to being traded to Boston.
"Very excited when I first heard the news. It was a pretty easy decision for me," he said. "The opportunity to play for a really good team already, and to be able to add to that, and hopefully to help these guys and make their life even easier. Just being in a high-level organization like Boston -- a historic franchise, iconic franchise -- made it extremely easy for me to make that decision."
The Celtics viewing Porzingis as the piece that can put them over the top has the 7-foot-3 Latvian feeling motivated heading into his first season with the team.
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"It's the most exciting feeling that you can get," Porzingis said. "That's why, as I said, it made it super easy and my complete favorite option was to come here to Boston. That fire that I got from that idea is gonna gas me up for the rest of the summer and for my time being here."
Porzingis teamed up with Bradley Beal in Washington and had a stint in Dallas with Luka Doncic, so he's no stranger to playing alongside NBA stars. He'll continue to do so with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the way.
How does he see himself fitting into the equation in Boston?
"I want to come here to make life easier for those guys," Porzingis said. "Hopefully, with my skill set and my talent, I can take some pressure off of those guys, and that's it. I come here to try to make this team better and I'm excited to play with such high-level guys that have been there from year to year and have that experience already. So yeah, I think it could be a great combination."
Porzingis will give the C's much-needed frontcourt scoring in addition to strong outside shooting and interior defense. He's coming off a career season in which he averaged a career-high 23.2 points per game and shot 38.5 percent from 3-point range. As long as he's healthy -- something he's had trouble with throughout his career -- he should be a major contributor to Boston's success in 2023-24.
