Kristaps Porzingis He is one of the most beloved NBA players in the capital of Andalusia, the power forward for the Washington Wizards left his mark on Seville both inside and outside the parquet. This 2.16-meter-tall Lithuanian player reached the lower categories of Club Baloncesto Sevilla in 2011, and At just 18 years old, he was already playing with the first team in the gold category of Spanish basketball.
It didn’t take long for him to attract the attention of the best basketball league in the world, and in 2015 he joined Carmelo Anthony’s New York Knicks after being chosen 4th in the first round of the draft. He played in the New York franchise until 2019, when moved to Dallas to defend the colors of the Mavericks. His time with this team was shorter, and in 2022 he arrived in the American capital to play in the Washington Wizards.
Despite this trip to the American continent, the Lithuanian player has always remembered with special affection his time in Spanish basketball and the capital of Seville, although he affirms that “At the beginning it was very hard living in the residence of Pino Montano” for having to deal with the high temperatures in the city, stating that “there was no air conditioning anywhere” and mosquitoes, which are also very common. His teammate at the time says that they took the mattresses out into the corridor to be able to sleep better, and affirms that «the serranito made my life easier because they were deliciousthe first word I learned was I want more bread».
This compañero also recounts that it was not easy for the boys to arrive in Spain without knowing the language, and leaving their family and friends in their country, “we only had our compañeros next to us”. In fact, his coach in those years says that Porzingis was very integrated with his teammates, and who spoke perfect Spanish and Sevillian. He and his partner learned Spanish in the same place, and the latter says that they were “a 2.16-meter blond guy with blue eyes who spoke Sevillian and Andalusian and I don’t think I look very Spanish.”
