Kristaps Porzingis and the Knicks can’t agree on why he was traded to Dallas

Kristaps Porzingis demanded a trade, and the Knicks obliged by sending him to Dallas. At least that’s what New York’s GM Steve Mills said during his on-air interview with MSG’s Rebecca Haarlow during Sunday’s game against Memphis, just days after the deal with the Mavericks.

But Porzingis posted on Instagram that there’s more to it than that, that the truth will eventually come to the light. What we know for sure is there was a rift between star player and his front office.

Who’s right and who’s wrong? Let’s figure out what exactly was said first.

The Kristaps Porzingis trade seemed abrupt. Mills and Knicks president Scott Perry met with Porzingis and his brother/manager Janis on the morning of Jan. 31. It leaked from New York that Porzingis was not interested in signing a contract extension in New York. He preferred to be traded, and if the Knicks didn’t do so, he would have signed the one-year qualifying offer that made him a free agent in 2020.

The Knicks agreed to trade Porzingis to Dallas less than an hour later.

In a bio graphic that aired on MSG Networks during New York’s matchup against Memphis, the team listed his skipped exit meeting after the 2016-17 season and his appearance in only 186 of 296 possible games under his career with the team.

It’s also not all they did. When Mills spoke to Haarlow, he said New York had eight offers on the table, but he also said he and Scott Perry were getting a vibe that Porzingis was unhappy with the situation in New York.

Mills made a few things clear during his interview:

“We started to get a feel that everything wasn’t going as well as we would have liked with Kristaps,” he said. “So Scott and I spent a lot of time [getting prepared] for if things aren’t going well or if he doesn’t want to be here, that we need to be ready. ...

“If we would have let this go beyond the [Feb. 7 NBA trade deadline], the leverage would have completely shifted,” he continued. “We would not have had control of the situation. We weren’t sure what Kristaps was going to come in and tell us. We just felt that we needed to have some certainty by the 7th. And when they came in to meet with us, they made it clear to us. ... We in one way thanked him for the clarity because it gave us the information that we needed to know.”

That’s how the Knicks spun this trade: Porzingis made it clear he wasn’t down for the cause, so they moved him.

On the night he was traded to Dallas, Porzingis posted a message on his Instagram stories: “The truth will come out :).”

At around 1 a.m. on Feb. 3, he posted another message on his Instagram story: “The city deserves better than that ... My suggestion for knicks fans is to STAY WOKE!! Peace.”

Porzingis also no-commented when the New York Post’s Marc Berman asked about his relationship with the New York front office:

“Right now, the situation is what it is,” Porzingis said during his introductory press conference on Monday. “I would rather just focus on what’s ahead of me than looking back. There might be a time where I go into more detail about that situation, but right now I just want to focus on my new team.”

You can say KP took the high road — kind of.

The other way to look at this is, of course Porzingis wasn’t down for the cause. The Knicks have the worst record in the NBA and were 10-40 when he was traded. Porzingis watched New York sign Carmelo Anthony to a long-term contract, only to max out in the second round of the playoffs. He watched the Knicks then drag Anthony through the dirt before pushing him out the door in a deal with Oklahoma City.

Porzingis was named an All-Star last season before tearing his ACL, an injury that’ll likely keep him out the rest of this year. The Knicks were melting around him: Not playing to win, with veteran contributors like Enes Kanter and Courtney Lee racking up DNP-CD’s, and with head coach David Fizdale running out of silver lining to lace each loss with.

In a way, they both are.

The Knicks haven’t been the best-run organization, to say the least. But that’s why they fired Phil Jackson midway through a very lucrative contract, then replaced him with Perry, who they pried away from Sacramento. Rebuilding is hard, and it normally includes a lot of losing. Boston did it. Philly did it. Brooklyn did it. Now all three are reaping the success of eating dirt for years.

The thing is, for Porzingis to have been happy in New York, he would have needed to buy all the way into the Knicks’ rebuild. He didn’t. He watched the franchise blow up around Melo, and was watching it blow up again around him. It’s understandable why he wanted out.

The way this was handled, though, has Knicks written all over it. Phil Jackson dragged Melo’s name through the dirt before eventually trading him to Oklahoma City. The Knicks had one of their legends, Charles Oakley, arrested while at a game, banned him from entering Madison Square Garden again — then paid homage to other Knicks greats with a legends night the next week. Even in the aftermath of the trade, Knicks PR denied New York Daily News beat writer Stefan Bondy access to the introductory press conference for the newly acquired players. Bondy was among the first to report Porzingis’ unease in New York and would have had questions for Mills and Perry.

Porzingis is not a Knicks great. He could have been if he stuck around, but New York spun the narrative to make sure it looks like they did what was best for them.

Maybe it is best for them. The trade created $71 million in cap space, meaning New York can now sign two max free agents. Porzingis, meanwhile, gets a fresh start with Luka Doncic. Outcome-wise, it’s a win-win.

And that’s probably what matters most.

We’ve seen spicier. This is mild.

6/10