There’s a very familiar path to stardom in New York City. Kristaps Porzingis was not interested in following it.

For Patrick Ewing, it was a collegiate career at Georgetown before being drafted by the Knicks in 1985. For Carmelo Anthony, it was a star career at Syracuse before being drafted No. 3-overall in 2003.

Kristaps Porzingis A Better Fit For LeBron James Than Kevin Love

Even Alan Houston played for four years at Tennessee before being drafted by the Pistons in 1993 and signing with New York in 1996.

All three were virtually cut from the same cloth of a collegiate upbringing and name recognition, but not Porzingis. His road to stardom differs drastically. For the first time in Knicks history, there is a genuine embrace of the unknown.

Kristaps Porzingis Already Better Than Patrick Ewing

Only 12 games into his career, Porzingis’ jersey sales are already rivaling that of his teammates.

“Right now, we have Porzingis jerseys in 40 stores in New York. We have a very good amount on the way to the online [Modell’s] store and a very, very large amount on its way to the store next to the Garden,” says Dave Brown, a Modell’s license buyer, per New York Daily News. “By next Wednesday, his jerseys will be in all the chain stores in New York and our inventory will quadruple.

“After [Tuesday’s] win, the sales over three days equaled all the sales from last week.”

There hasn’t been an international player with this much partiality for since Dwayne Schintzius’ role as Ivan Radovadovitch in the 1996 film “Eddie.”

There hasn’t been a Knicks victory worthy of recognition since that debacle was produced, either, but we digress.

Averaging 13.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in November, Porzingis can more than “make basket.” Now, he just needs to win games.

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