Star Boston Celtics offseason acquisition Kristaps Porzingis sounded the alarm on his plantar fasciitis injury — claiming that the ailment is a result of a career of wear and tear and that things got worse while training for the FIBA World Cup.
“The foot hurts after exercise, I feel almost nothing when walking, it’s a really funny injury,” Porziņgis said (h/t CBS News Boston). “I have an idea what the origin of the injury might be, but it’s something that builds up over the course of a career and pops out at one point. It got worse during the training process — when it started to hurt, then I couldn’t get rid of the inflammation either.”
Porzingis has an injury history dating back to a torn ACL during his third season with the New York Knicks that caused him to miss the entire 2018-19 season. Hearing him say that his body’s issues now are the result of seven seasons is concerning, to say the least, considering the Celtics now have him signed on for the next three.
Star Boston Celtics offseason acquisition Kristaps Porzingis downplays injury
Hoping for Boston Celtics fans to avoid smashing the panic button, Porzingis downplayed his foot injury and promised that he’d be “fine” by the start of the 2023-24 season; which tips off against the team that drafted him, the Knicks, at Madison Square Garden on October 25.
“Feelings are good,” Porzingis said. “Of course, I am not yet in such a shape that I can play and train fully. But going step by step, everything should be fine by the start of the season.”
Boston’s Banner 18 hopes largely rest on the shoulders of Porzingis, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. Having any component of that trio anything but 100% will make the road to another title long, arduous, and perhaps too difficult to reach the destination.
Let’s hope Porzingis wasn’t just trying to cover his tracks by saying he’s fine because of how bad it sounded when he traced back the origins of his foot issues to a seven-season career.