Porziņģis revealed this and some other details about the upcoming game to LTV.
"There'll be a little half-time show [at the centenary game], so I've heard. The game is dedicated to Latvia, so I would like my surname to have the [proper letters] ņ and ģ. It would be something special," he said.
Ņ (pronounced like the N in 'Newton') and ģ (pronounced like D, and J together), are letters that were introduced in 1908 by a commission overseeing Latvian's move to the Latin alphabet. Until the second world war, Latvian was routinely written in the Gothic script.
Learn how to correctly pronounce Kristaps' surname and the tricky letters with this helpful video.
Kristaps also used the interview to share some thoughts on his and his team's performance this season.
"My dream was to become an All-Star. Now it's come true. It was an individual dream for me. But what's most important is what we can do as a team. We want to get into the play-offs. It'd be a very valuable experience to me," he said.
Despite a very impressive start of the season, the Knicks have been finding it increasingly difficult to win recently. Kristaps shared some thoughts on that as well.
"First of all, the defense has changed. Often [the opponents] come to help and there's two guys covering me. I have to pass on the ball, make the right pass, make the right choice. Everything's changing," he said.
"In the early season, no one knew the way we'd play. We played with lots of energy and ran around a lot. Now we're playing more slowly and maybe don't get as many open shots. It all adds up. Of course I could also do many things better, but that's why I'm learning," he said.
