If what is currently brewing in the US professional league NBA is true, then Ariel Hukporti is now a rich man. His new working paper with the New York Knicks basketball team is expected to bring him a little more than a million dollars a year. This is of course good news for the Stralsund native with Togolese roots.
Who earns so much money and is lucky enough to suddenly be a real NBA professional? With a highly official two-year contract? Especially in this city where basketball was practically invented on the outdoor courts between Brooklyn and Queens? Hukporti, 22, has been joining a notable group for a few days now: He is alongside Dennis Schröder (Brooklyn Nets), Franz and Moritz Wagner as well as Tristan da Silva (all Orlando Magic), Daniel Theis (New Orleans Pelicans), Maxi Kleber ( Dallas Mavericks) and Isaiah Hartenstein (Oklahoma City Thunder) the eighth German basketball player in the best league in the world. So much Germany never been to the NBA music shop.
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And the newest import from Germany alongside da Silva (also a league newcomer) has already played four games. He picked up rebounds and blocked shots, received and dealt elbows, got to know everyday life with air travel on the club’s own plane, in short: he got a taste of it, as the sports language likes to say. As a rookie, he threw his impressive physique and 2.13 meter length straight into the fray for a few minutes in the legendary Madison Square Garden.
From the outside, Hukporti has long looked like a true NBA colossus. 112 kilograms, upper arms like a bodybuilder, hint of a bushy beard. But so far his employment relationship has only granted him guest status: his so-called two-way contract enabled his club to send him back to the Westchester Knicks farm team at any time. You never know with a freshman. With this contract, clubs in the USA like to keep all back doors open. But this intermediate life is now over, like the station ESPN reported.
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Accordingly, the New York Knicks will include center player Hukporti in their squad, even for two seasons, if the club is still happy with him next summer (if not, he can move). As a substitute, he can now hope for more playing time, and even if this doesn’t happen, he won’t be at risk of being demoted to the lower house of the G-League.
It was already apparent during the preparation that the Knicks and especially coach Tom Thibodeau were impressed with their draft pick. There Hukporti let it rattle several times to the delight of the New York supporters. He likes the spectacle, he masters powerful defensive moves like “monster blocks”, but also the good old “monster dunk”. People like him are in demand in the NBA basketball circus, where it can never be brutal enough. Defensive preacher Thibodeau found one or two of his replacement center’s performances “fabulous,” especially when it came to preventing baskets and cleaning up. The coach has decided to give the former Bundesliga professional and globetrotter (Hukporti commuted between Ludwigsburg, Lithuania and Australia) a chance. And conveniently, the Knicks, who started the season well, currently have a position opening up as ring protector and bundle of energy behind the newly signed starting center Karl-Anthony Towns.
So Hukporti is in an environment that is conducive to his development, even if his offensive toolbox is far from complete. Hitting from distance, well-rounded shooting mechanics, understanding of the game – these are things he needs to work on if he wants to become a solid NBA professional. But the first steps have been taken and his career provides interesting insights, because he didn’t come into the league the classic way via college. “I was often in America as a teenager, but I had never played a real game here before,” said Hukporti at his only press appointment so far before the start of the season. For him, his arrival was like it is for many rookies: with a hard impact in the universe of super-athletes: “Then I noticed how quickly things got going, less tactically, with a lot more freely chosen offensive actions.” He had to get used to that. The fact that Hukporti got started quickly is also due to other circumstances.
The personnel situation at the Knicks benefits him, after all, the long-injured center player Mitchell Robinson is missing from the squad. And someone else has actually disappeared in New York since this season: another German, the aforementioned Isaiah Hartenstein, has left the club. After his strong preseason, he was even considered a favorite of the fans in Manhattan. Now there is a replacement in Hukporti – and Hartenstein, who is currently injured, is not in danger of becoming poor. He signed a three-year, $87 million contract with title contender Oklahoma.
