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Knicks Draft Ntilikina to Join Porzingis, Working Trades To Acquire Pasecniks and Antetokounmpo
With the eighth pick in the NBA Draft, the New York Knicks drafted Frank Ntilikina, an 18-year-old guard from France. Frank will join the team’s other overseas player from Latvia, Kristaps Porzingis.
To further internationalize the roster, Jackson is working on a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s offering any of his American-born players in exchange for Anzejs Pasecniks of Latvia, who was drafted by the Sixers this week. By making this trade, the Knicks would have two players from Latvia, thereby building team chemistry that the Knicks need. People born in the same countries tend to get along well. They understand each other on some visceral level.
But Jackson is not stopping at Anzejs. He is actively seeking to trade his scoring star, Carmelo Anthony, to the Milwaukee Bucks for Greece-born Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek player was a second-team All-NBA player this season.
If these two trades pan out, Jackson will be able to start four players from overseas who also, collectively, have four of the most difficult-to-spell names on any team in American sports.
Take Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example. Not only is his last name tough to spell, it looks impossible to pronounce. Look at that last name: Antetokounmpo. Is the “n” silent? Is the “m” silent? If neither is silent, then do you emphasize the “n” or “m” more in pronunciation? It is tough to imagine what the sound of “n” and “m” sound like together.
His name has at least five syllables. The only basketball player with more syllables in his last name, six, is Ryan Arcidiacono. But Archy was a college basketball player and this is about the NBA.
The only other athlete with six syllables in his name is Jarrod Saltalamacchi, who was a pro baseball player. Although Salty’s name is borderline insane, stay focused on the NBA. Even though two other athletes have more syllables in their last names, Antetokounmpo wins the grand prize for the most confusing looking name on paper. It looks like a series of typos dancing at a vowel festival.
“Having a guy on our team with this last name makes the Knicks more worldly and interesting and will appeal to the intellectuals and aristocrats in New York who care deeply about spellings and pronunciations,” said Jackson. “As stimulating as the name Antetokounmpo is, we can’t discount how exotic the name Anzejs Pasecniks is. We have to get that guy on our team. We would have a fascinating last name of any team in NBA history: Antetokounmpo, Pasecniks, Ntilikina, and Porzingis. We don’t need any guys on our team with pedestrian last names such as Anthony.”
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