The rare ankle injury that Kristap Porzingis suffered during the NBA Finals is going to have ramifications for next season, too.
The Boston Celtics center underwent surgery for the torn retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon he sustained in Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks, his team announced Thursday morning.
The recovery is expected to take 5-6 months. With the 2024-25 regular season set to begin in late October, the Celtics will likely be without Porzingis for at least a month into their championship defense.
Porzingis missed Games 3 and 4 of this month’s NBA Finals but played through the injury in Boston’s series-clinching Game 5 win.
He totaled five points and a rebound in 16 minutes in that 106-88 victory.
“I will fix it,” Porzingis told ESPN that night of his injury. “This is the most important, and after my injury healing, and all that, it’s totally worth it.”
Originally drafted No. 4 overall by the Knicks in 2015, Porzingis also played for the Mavericks and the Washington Wizards before being acquired by Boston last offseason.
Porzingis, 28, averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the top-seeded Celtics in the regular season but missed much of the postseason because of a calf strain he suffered in the first round.
The 7-3 center returned from that injury in Game 1 of the Finals and scored 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting to help give Boston a 1-0 lead in the series. He scored 12 points in Game 2.
The championship was Porzingis’ first in nine seasons.
His arrival helped put Boston over the top after five trips to the Eastern Conference finals in the previous seven years – and a 2022 Finals berth – that didn’t end in a championship.
The Celtics also acquired point guard Jrue Holiday, an elite defender and veteran floor general, last offseason to bolster a lineup led by star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Due to Porzingis’ injuries, 38-year-old center Al Horford started 15 of the Celtics’ 19 playoff games this year, averaging 9.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game during the championship run. Horford, who has one year remaining on his contract, plans to return for another season.
NBA DRAFT DAY 2
There was some drama on the second day of the NBA draft with Bronny James – the oldest son of the NBA’s all-time scoring leader and four-time champion LeBron James – getting selected by the Los Angeles Lakers, the team that his father has played for since 2018.
Bronny James was taken with the No. 55 overall pick, deep in the second round and with only three picks remaining in this year’s draft.
“Beyond blessed,” Bronny James wrote in an Instagram post.
Adding further intrigue to the move: LeBron James can become a free agent next week, which means he could choose to leave the Lakers and sign elsewhere.
“In the history of the NBA, there’s never been a father and a son that have shared an NBA basketball court and that feels like something that could be magical,” Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka said. “We know, and have to respect of course, that LeBron has a decision on his opt-out … but if it worked out that he was on our team next season, NBA history could be made. And NBA history should be made in a Lakers uniform.”
The draft move doesn’t guarantee that father and son will actually play in a game together, nor does it even guarantee that Bronny James will be on the Lakers’ roster next season. But it certainly raises the possibility that it could happen in what would be an NBA first – a father-son on-court duo in the league simultaneously as players. There have been about 100 instances in NBA history of players joining the league after their fathers played, but those always came at least five years after the father’s career ended.
But LeBron James’ incredible longevity – he’ll match Vince Carter for the longest career as an NBA player ever this coming season, which will be his 22nd in the league – makes the father-son duo possible.
Bronny James is a 19-year-old guard, one who was listed at 6-foot-4 on Southern California’s roster but measured at 6 feet, 1 1/2 inches at the draft combine. That would make him one of the shortest players in the NBA, but his athleticism and defensive ability helped give him this opportunity.
“Bronny is, first and foremost, a person of high character,” Pelinka said. “And second, he is a young man that works incredibly hard. Those are the qualities we look for in drafting players and adding to our developmental corps at the Lakers.”
Bronny James played one year of college basketball at USC and averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game last season. He played in 25 games, missing the start of the season after needing a procedure last year to fix what was diagnosed as a congenital heart defect, which was found after he went into cardiac arrest during a summer workout.
A panel of doctors cleared Bronny James for NBA play last month.
Day 2 of the draft saw 24 other players get taken before Bronny James – including Anton Watson of Gonzaga to the Celtics with the 54th pick – though none got the attention that the No. 55 selection received, for obvious reasons.
The 55th pick rarely turns out to be a player who captures a slew of attention. The best 55th pick in NBA history would be current Miami Heat guard Patty Mills, selected in 2009 and someone who has scored 7,893 points in his 15-season career.
Some other notable No. 55 picks include Marc Iavaroni, Mark Blount, Kenny Gattison and E’Twaun Moore. There’s never been a No. 55 pick that was an NBA All-Star, an All-NBA player, an All-Rookie team player or an All-Defensive team pick.
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