Every time seven-foot-three Kristaps Porzingis blocks a shot this season, the New York Knicks big man will donate $500 to the New York-area RENS youth basketball program. From the NBA’s official announcement:
NEW YORK (AP) — Kristaps Porzingis is turning blocks into bucks.
The New York Knicks forward will donate $500 for each of his blocked shots for the rest of the season to the RENS, a New York-area, not-for-profit youth basketball program.
The RENS will use the donations from the “KrisStops” campaign for the Ben Jobe Educational and Scholarship Fund. It will help provide RENS participants with free tutoring, SAT prep and tuition money for students in third to eighth grades.
The 7-foot-3 Porzingis, who is averaging 1.2 blocks, will announce the initiative Saturday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York. The program will begin with Sunday’s home game against Atlanta.
Jobe, the Knicks’ 83-year-old scout, won more than 530 games as a coach at seven black colleges and universities.
Porzingis is averaging 1.2 blocks per game at the moment. The Knicks have 70 games left to play, so if Porzingis continues at this pace, and doesn’t miss any games, then his total donation would come out to $42,000. Of course, it’s unlikely that Porzingis plays every single game. However, given that he averaged 1.9 blocks last season in 4.2 fewer minutes per game, it’s also very possible that the Latvian-born big man sees his blocks per game average increase as the season progresses.
