EXCLUSIVE: Kristaps Porziņģis First Interview as an Atlanta Hawk

This is my third day. Honestly, so far everything is super good. I'm super happy. Just arriving here and it was like, I don't know, 7, 8 PM and the sun was shining. It was like a nice sunset. I caught like a good vibe here, you know, from the beginning. And so just went around looking for houses, looking for places to stay. And, you know, got to know some people around the organization and stuff. And yeah, it's been exciting. You know, a new beginning, a new chapter, and I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, the origin story is, I believe it was KD. KD's one of his post-game interviews, and he just called me Unicorn. It was, I think, my rookie or maybe my second year. Just, I guess, you know, he was like describing my game, you know, the versatility, shooting from outside, playing inside, etc. And KD gave me that nickname, I guess, and from that point on, it just kind of stuck. Yeah, I know, honestly, like, in my rookie year, I was getting a lot of, like, love from the vets, you know, from older guys, from good players, and it was nice to get recognized by somebody like KD, obviously. You know, I was super excited. I didn't love the nickname at first. Wasn't a big fan of it. Big fan, but yeah, then it just stuck around and I kind of started to appreciate it more and more, I guess, with time, you know? And yeah, it was a big honor to be recognized by one of the greats like KD. Obviously now I'm seeing more of the Summer League guys, young guys and stuff. I've texted with a few guys already that reached out and stuff to welcome me to the team. I haven't crossed with anybody yet, you know, here at the practice facility, but we're going to have enough time, you know, we're going to have enough time, and I look forward to coming back in September after European Championship and getting to know everything and getting situated. Obviously my style of play, it's a little bit known now, maybe, you know, I'm capable of doing that, playing outside, playing inside. For the last 3 years, I think I've been, if not the most efficient, then one of the most efficient players in the post-up because of the mismatches I create. And I think that's gonna help our team and our spacing a lot, you know? And that's something I'm gonna bring to this team, and obviously my rim protection also. I'm gonna do my part on the defensive end, and I think I could add a lot there also. And yeah, honestly, I'm very excited about this new chapter. Yeah, honestly, the transition from like Washington, where it was, we had some vets, but it was a pretty young team, to go into like a really experienced team, you know, where some of the youngest guys were like, you know, JT, JB, Jalen, you know, and Jason. And they were, you know, 26, 27, 28 already. It's like, you know, it was like a vet team, like smart players, experienced players already. They've been to the playoffs many times. So they had a strong culture already of how the organization works. And, you know, they're— it's like expected to win there. You know, it was a different environment than I've been in maybe. And definitely like a lot you can learn, you know, and just being around that kind of a winning culture. Yeah. I think it just helps any player that goes through there, you know? And that's what I want to bring here also, you know? I've seen how professional, how locked in those guys were towards the goal that was winning a championship. And so was I, you know? And that's something I think, yeah, I will try to bring here and bring my experience. You know, this is going to be my 11th season, I think, so— 11th? Yeah, I'm gonna try to help the young guys, you know, bring the best out of them and make that next jump with each year. And I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, it's gonna be natural. It's gonna be, you're gonna see where you can help, what you see, you know, where you can give something to the young guys. It doesn't need to be forced where it's like, oh, well, you know. That was the thing. In Boston, everybody was so, you know, kind of already experienced, you know? So it wasn't too much of that needed, almost. But here, we'll see, we'll see. You know, there's guys that definitely know how to play basketball already, but there's gonna be some younger guys that for sure can benefit from, you know, my presence here. And yeah, and it's, you know, we're gonna figure it out. And I think this is a good year for us to make, for this team to make a jump, like, as a team, but also for a lot of guys to make a jump individually, and that's an exciting part too. Yeah, I think, obviously, I'm always trying to improve my game and becoming more and more efficient. The post-up, last year was my best season shooting threes, so I want to keep that up. You know, that's gonna open the court, for us, for Trey, for all these guys to get downhill. The 5 is, I don't know who they're gonna put on me, whoever it's gonna be, it's gonna have to guard me outside. I think also I saw a stat that, I don't know if I was number 2, Trey was number 1 for the furthest distance shooting 3s, right? So that's gonna be an interesting combo too. And yeah, I look forward to it. How do you feel about I like the situation that we're in now. We're like, this team has kind of been almost there, you know, kind of like, but can't really get over the hump to make like a deep run and to really, you know, there's like for sure some promise in some years, but I think this is a year that we can be like sneaky good, you know, and surprise people and get further than maybe expected. And who knows how far we can go? I don't want to put any ceiling, you know? And that's exciting to me. That's really exciting to me. And yeah, bringing some like freshness also to the team with me coming in, I think can hopefully give us a nice boost. Message for Hawks fans, I think, like, be excited for this year. I'm gonna bring what I bring. I'm gonna bring my experience, my game, and we're gonna give it all. We're gonna give it all to go as far as we can. And who knows how far that is, so let's get ready for a good season.