Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis confirmed after his team put the finishing touches on its championship run on Monday night that he’ll undergo surgery to address his “rare” left leg injury, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Porzingis added that the recovery process will likely take a “few months.” Given the quick turnaround between the end of the Celtics’ season and the start of the 2024/25 campaign, it’s unclear whether or not he’ll be ready to go for training camp in the fall.
Porzingis suffered the injury in Game 2 while battling for rebounding position on a free throw attempt after having returned from a calf strain in his right leg at the start of the NBA Finals. In their announcement last week, the Celtics referred to the new ailment as a “torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon” in the veteran center’s left leg.
Porzingis missed Game 3 and didn’t play in Game 4 despite being active. He returned to the court for Game 5 on Monday, contributing five points and a rebound in 16 minutes of action. Boston outscored Dallas by eight points when he was on the court.
If it had occurred during the regular season, the injury likely would’ve sidelined Porzingis immediately for a lengthy period. However, he was determined to try to play through it if he could, even though he admitted after Monday’s series-clinching victory that he had concerns about potentially making it worse.
“I think something could have happened, for sure, especially compensating now on the other leg now, which I just came back from,” he said, per Bontemps. “There was definitely some added risk, but I didn’t care. I was like, ‘I want to give everything I can and then fix it after if I need to.’”
Having signed a two-year, $60MM extension with the Celtics after being traded to the team last summer, Porzingis is under contract through the 2025/26 season. He’ll make approximately $29.3MM in ’24/25.