Kristaps Porzingis won the NBA Skills Challenge at the 2017 All-Star Weekend in New Orleans. Reminder: he’s 7’3, and he’s now the most skilled player* in the NBA.
NBA Skills Challenge 2017: 7’3 Kristaps Porzingis beats out Gordon Hayward
Porzingis won the “bigs” bracket and then beat a guard (well, sort of) in Hayward.
(*OK, so winning the Skills Challenge might not make you the most skilled player in the league. Let me have this.)
Porzingis first beat DeMarcus Cousins and Nikola Jokic in the big men half of the bracket. Twice, because players shoot on the same basket for the final three-pointer, Boogie’s shots deflected Porzingis’ efforts from potentially going in, but the Latvian eventually nailed one.
Facing him in the finals was Gordon Hayward, who had beaten John Wall and then Isaiah Thomas. (Hayward and Thomas must have missed at least 10 combined threes before Hayward knocked one down.)
Look, no one really cares about the Skills Contest, but it further proves the point that Porzingis is an incredible uniform at 7’3 with skills we’re totally unaccustomed to seeing for a player at his size. Congrats to him and congrats to the big men, who won’t let those lil guards have anything.
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