This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2016, issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here.
Kristaps Porzingis sits in stages, folding his 7'3" frame into a leather chair, collapsing his legs under a coffee table, squeezing his elbows inside an arm rest. It is an act of contortion almost as acrobatic as a lefthanded floater in a crowded lane. The NBA is populated by outsized humans, but there is something especially supernatural about the length of Porzingis, which can’t simply be characterized by wingspan measurements at predraft workouts. The first words Hubie Brown said upon meeting the Knicks’ rookie were, “He’s so tall!