Injured Porzingis skips Olympic qualifiers

Luck rolled off the Filipinos’ way as Latvian center Kristaps Porzingis is set to undergo surgery that would keep him out of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) at the Arena Riga in Latvia next month.

According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, the 7-foot-4 slotman of the Boston Celtics will spend his off-season in sickbay as he opted to undergo surgery to treat a “rare injury” that he suffered during their run to the National Basketball Association (NBA) title last week.

Porzingis tore his medial retinaculum that led to a dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon. The surgery and recovery process will take a “few months,” which means that he will miss the OQT that starts on 2 July and — if the Latvians will be triumphant — the Paris Olympics that is set to open on 27 July.

“There was definitely some added risk, but I didn’t care. I was like, ‘I want to give everything I can and then fix it after if I need to,’” Porzingis said shortly after the Celtics formally clinched a record 18th NBA title.

“But it pretty much hurts on every step. Like, I would take a walk in Dallas, and my leg would swell up.”

‘So now we have to be a little bit more creative.’

After playing 57 games in the regular season, Porzingis suffered a calf injury in the first round of the NBA Playoffs that forced him to sit out until the NBA Finals.

He made a miraculous return in Game 1 of the Finals but suffered the same injury again in Game 2 that led to his benching in Games 3 and 4.

In Game 5, he came off the bench with five points in 16 minutes of action to help the Celtics win the NBA title.

“Tonight was the night. I was like, listen, I’m going to give it everything I have,” Porzingis said.

“And, yeah, I’m just super happy to be a part of this and give something to the team, and I’m super thankful for the support I’ve gotten from the fans. And tonight, the arena was electric. It’s been unbelievable playing in front of these fans.”

Porzingis’ absence is a huge sigh of relief to Gilas Pilipinas, which will be missing the services of injured stars AJ Edu and Jamie Malonzo.

Gilas coach Tim Cone admitted that the absence of the 6-foot-10 Edu is a major blow that would force them to be “creative” in defending Porzingis and other Latvian and Georgian big men in the OQT.

“We had AJ Edu who was supposed to be that guy stopper to help us defend Porzingis or other of their big guys. But we won’t have him,” Cone rued after Edu crashed with a knee injury.

“So now we have to be a little bit more creative.”

But Porzingis is just one of the top guns of the dreaded Latvian squad.

During the FIBA World Championship last year, the sweet-shooting big man was also not around, but the Latvians still came very close to making it to the semifinals.

Davis Bertans, however, botched a potential game-winner in the final two seconds, prompting them to suffer a 79-81 loss to eventual champion Germany in the quarterfinals.

Still, Cone believes that Porzingis absence will somehow boost their chances of pulling off an upset that would draw them closer to their first Olympic stint since 1972.

“I wouldn’t want to wish ill on anybody but it won’t bother me if Porzingis doesn’t play because of injuries,” Cone said.