The official EuroBasket app
Download Now
RIGA (Latvia) – It’s hard to believe eight years have passed. Kristaps Porzingis was The Unicorn back then, catching everybody in disbelief at the FIBA EuroBasket 2017, making Latvia one of the most entertaining teams in the entire event.
They eventually lost to Slovenia 103-97 in the Quarter-Finals. While all of Latvia felt heartbroken, the rest of the world understood perfectly what Kristaps meant here.
Witnessing the then 22-year-old go off for 23.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 23.4 efficiency rating per game in the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, we all thought we would get to enjoy his domination across all FIBA events in years to come.
We were wrong.
Pick your poison, as injuries happened, bad luck and bad results happened, and life, generally, happened. Instead of years of domination, we had to wait for 2025 to finally get to see KP back in his favorite jersey, with the three stars emblazoned on the chest.
“Once in a lifetime, once in a basketball career you get this kind of opportunity, especially for us as a small country. That’s why there’s no looking back, we have to give 100 percent when we’re out there and enjoy every single second on the floor,” Porzingis said, just days separating him from entering the packed arena in Riga at FIBA EuroBasket 2025.
“
“We have all the tools necessary to do something big.”
Big. Just as big as he is in the eyes of his teammates.
“Kristaps is the guy that makes everyone else better,” Dairis Bertans offered.
“It’s super easy to play when he’s on the court, because obviously he takes most of the defense’s attention. For me as a shooter, it’s great – I just have to hit the open shots. Also, on the defensive end, he’s a threat under the basket, rim protector, a lot of times players when they see him under the basket they choose not to go for a layup, so he really helps on the defensive end as well,” he added.
Bertans is not surprised at all that Porzingis became one of the biggest stars in the basketball world.
“When we first played together in 2017, even then, he was already super professional, coming early to the practices, sticking through the routines, you could tell he’s consistent with what he’s been doing and that’s what’s taken him so far.”
While Dairis has already played with the 221 cm (7ft 3in’) center and is completely cool when talking about it, Arturs Zagars’s eyes light up when you ask him about Kristaps.
“When you’re with him on the court as the point guard, players guard you in a different way. He makes everybody’s life much easier,” Zagars said with a smile.
It’s a common theme for Latvia, especially since Luca Banchi took over. Smiles all over the place, players smiling, fans smiling, staff smiling, heck – even their basketball feels like you’re smiling.
“The best vibes. The best vibes,” Porzingis said when asked about the locker room.
“Almost all of us play outside of the country during the year, and then we have the summer when everybody comes home and we just have the best vibes, the best atmosphere, Latvian music playing, having fun, some Latvian inside jokes, stuff like that.”
“In a way, it’s a hard summer, because you work out every day, the coach is yelling, but we also recharge at the same time, being around your boys that you’ve been playing with every summer. It gives us a boost of energy for sure.”
The danger is, what if that good energy becomes explosive? What if the homecourt becomes pressure instead of an advantage? How do you even approach a tournament you’re hosting, with the entire nation hoping you can create history?
“You do what you usually do. Don’t do anything crazy just because it’s a short and intense tournament,” the 30-year-old said.
“You get in the best shape you can, you do all the work necessary, preparing with your team, building chemistry in this short period, and then, just go and leave everything out there. There’s no place better to do it than at home, so that’s going to be an unbelievable experience.”
Kristaps says the EuroBasket is different in terms of intensity, but then laughs as he adds another sentence.
“So is the NBA Finals,” he reminds us of his NBA championship won with the Boston Celtics in 2024, without even mentioning it.
Latvia’s game plan will be somewhat similar to the Celtics’ one, with one key word uniting the two worlds: speed.
“We’re gonna play fast. We need to play fast. We need to play moving the ball, using each other, selflessly, being a team that doesn’t give up in any moment. That’s what we’re going to show our fans.”
Porzingis is coming into the tournament with another address change in the United States. He joined the Atlanta Hawks over the summer, staying in the East, but facing two centers from the West in Group A proceedings in Riga.
He’ll take on Nikola Jokic and Serbia, plus Alperen Sengun and Türkiye.
“Obviously, Serbia is a big, big challenge. Probably number one, or top three, for sure, team of the tournament on paper. That’s gonna be a tough game for us. We got to try to present some challenges to them. Türkiye is also good, they’ve got some NBA guys, but even teams like Czechia and Estonia, they’re dangerous, too. Everybody can surprise you, we just have to be locked in,” he responded to the question about group rivals.
But he also wanted to mention one more team outside of Latvia’s group.
“It would be special if we meet our neighbors somewhere down the line,” he smiled, hoping for a rematch of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 battle for fifth place between Latvia and Lithuania.
“That would be really cool, it’s always a big rivalry. They have great fans, great basketball heritage. We’re coming up, we’re trying to creep up on them, so it would be really cool to play them.”
FIBA