@thesportsontap: Kristaps Porzingis once paid $500 of his own money for every shot he blocked and sent it to a school fund in Harlem. He stepped away from basketball today. He was 21. His second season with the Knicks. He stood up at the Fred Samuel Center in Harlem in November of 2016 and said he would give $500 to a youth program called the New York RENS for every shot he blocked that year. "I'm going to block all the shots that I can." They called it KrisStops. A New York real estate developer named Keith Rubenstein, a longtime holder of Knicks season tickets, heard about it and matched him. Every block was worth $1,000. The money went to the program's Ben Jobe Educational Fund. It paid tuition at Catholic schools, private schools and prep schools, and covered tutoring and SAT prep for families who could not pay for it. Five weeks in, Porzingis had blocked 43 shots. The campaign had raised $43,000. "This is my home now and hopefully for many, many years, and this is only the beginning." He was not from New York. He grew up in Liepaja, a port city on the coast of Latvia. His father drove a bus. His mother taught school. In June of 2016, one year into his NBA career, he went home and gave the city a basketball court. Outdoor, floodlit, built to NBA dimensions, free for anyone who wanted it. About 300 people stood in the rain to watch it open. He apologized for reading his speech off his phone. His mother spoke that day about who would look after it. "My former students will always be here, who promised to look after the court." He gave Liepaja a second court in 2017 and a third in 2019. His older brother Martins ran the builds. Today he said his body did not respond the way he anticipated. "I'm doing good, but I know what it takes, and I'm not where I want to be to perform at the level I expect of myself." He has not called it a retirement. All three courts are still standing. The city lists the addresses on its own tourism page. They are free. #NBA #nbanews #basketball

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Saturday 07 November 2026 03:40:11 GMT