The Mavericks will introduce Monday their new franchise gem, Kristaps Porzingis, who didn’t want anything to do with New York any longer — as his Sunday morning Instagram post suggested.
Whether Porzingis made an exact trade demand, only he can confirm Monday in what figures to be a jovial affair at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
On the contrary, it was a sad Super Bowl Sunday at the Garden for the Knicks. The three new additions — Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews — were introduced after modest debuts at a no-frills press conference conspicuously devoid of smiles.
None of the three seemed in good spirits after the Knicks continued to head south in a 96-84 matinee defeat to the lowly Grizzlies, raising their losing streak to 13 games and lowering their record to 10-42.
Porzingis expressed his concern with all that losing in his four years when he and his brother/agent, Janis, met with team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry on Thursday in a meeting the Porzingis brothers initiated, according to the Knicks.
Porzingis’ disillusionment with the Knicks — which first came to light when he skipped his exit meeting after the 2016-17 season — was aired on his Instagram early Sunday morning with a stark message.
“The city deserves better than that.… My suggestion for knicks fans is to STAY WOKE!! Peace.”
Mills, on MSG Network, responded: “We don’t want someone who doesn’t want to be here.’’
Also retaliating to Porzingis’ social media message, Knicks coach David Fizdale said the losing is not for lack of trying.
“I know what we’re trying to do here,” Fizdale said before the Knicks lost their 25th game in 27 outings. “I know how hard we’re working, what we’re trying to accomplish and I’m staying focused on that task. Every day these guys work extremely hard for this city, extremely hard for these fans. They don’t like losing either. But this is where they are right now.”
Fizdale has a right to be insulted by Porzingis’ social media messaging. He never got a chance to coach the Knicks with Porzingis healthy.
Fizdale did all he could to mend fences on a relationship that soured a while ago. The coach flew to Latvia this summer to spend four days with him.
In return, in November, Porzingis posted an Instagram picture of him sprinting, embarrassing his coach. Fizdale had told reporters Porzingis was doing only “light running.’’
As The Post reported, the Knicks felt a supreme urgency to hammer out a deal by this Thursday’s trade deadline if they felt iffy on Porzingis re-signing.
“We let this go after [Feb.] 7th, the leverage would have completely shifted,’’ Mills said.
Mills said they most feared Porzingis signing a one-year qualifying offer that would allow him to be a free agent in 2020 and that would have made him tough to trade.
“He would have had all the leverage,’’ Mills said.
In the weeks of doing due diligence on Porzingis, Mills said he received about eight trade offers. As The Post reported, the Knicks offered Porzingis to New Orleans for Anthony Davis but nothing came close to fruition. The Knicks didn’t want to lose all their cap space in a Davis trade.
Mills said the three things they needed from a Porzingis trade were financial flexibility, draft picks and a top prospect on a rookie-scale contract. The Knicks could have traded Porzingis before the 2017 draft to Phoenix for Devin Booker and been in position to draft Lauri Markkanen, according to sources.
“We started to get a feel everything wasn’t going as well as he would like with Kristaps,” Mills said. “We needed to be ready.”
“They made it clear he’s not going to re-sign with the Knicks,” Mills added. “In one way, we thanked him for the clarity.”
Whether he formally asked for a trade or just wouldn’t commit long term on the spot is unclear and perhaps a matter of semantics. But Porzingis gets his turn Monday.
MSG Network was in full force in trying to make sure the fans knew all the warts that came with Porzingis. In an odd career timeline graphic, the network listed him as blowing off his exit meeting and that he played in 186 of a possible 296 games.
Porzingis likely won’t be playing this season, but he is expected to be smiling when he brandishes his new jersey.