Kristaps Porzingis
Photo: Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

One of the first things that the new Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd did after getting the job was visit the team’s stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. In an interview with fellow former NBA players Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins one of the topics that he touched on was visiting Latvia.

“It was incredible again. Another beautiful place,” Kidd said on ESPN’s The Jump. “I got to hang out with KP. We had a couple dinners, I got to see him work out. But I also got to just see him on his turf I think a lot of times we don’t get to see our Europeans their homes. So I got the opportunity to go over there and hang out and we had a great time.

“KP’s incredible not just a basketball player but a person. We all know.. well, I just learned that he loves the fights, the boxing matches and stuff like that. You look at just learning something new about a person by going to their hometown was something that I was excited about doing and I had a great time.”

This past season there were some reported tensions between Porzingis and Doncic. The two stars reportedly do not like each other. There were also rumors that the Latvian forward could get traded by the Mavs. Team owner Mark Cuban denied such reports and Porzingis ended up staying in Dallas.