Kristaps Porzingis wakes up an hour early to eat a huge breakfast, and it sounds delicious

When this season started, one of the biggest questions about Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis was his durability.

At 7-foot-3, with a long, slender frame, some — including Knicks president Phil Jackson — worried Porzingis’ body couldn’t take the 82-game beating the NBA season offers.

Over the summer Porzingis had his work laid out for him to gain weight and muscle.

He reportedly did so, adding 11 pounds before heading into training camp.

As New York Post’s Marc Berman elaborates, breakfast played a huge part in Porzingis’ growth.

Porzingis lives with his parents just outside of New York City, and his mom, also a former basketball player, concedes to the Knicks’ wishes and helps make Kristaps a giant breakfast. Kristaps told Berman:

I didn’t pay as much attention in the beginning of the season to breakfast. I wanted to get to the gym. I’d eat something quick and go to work out. So now I’m getting up one hour, 1½ hours earlier and having a big breakfast so I have energy for the whole day. I’m really focusing on breakfast.

He then described his usual morning meal: “A lot of cottage cheese with fruit, then eggs, ham, toast. It’s kind of like an American breakfast, but Latvian style. It’s a big meal. I don’t think other people have big breakfasts like me.”

He added: “[The Knicks] wanted me to have big breakfasts, but I’m really pushing myself to eat, even when I’m not hungry, so I can have a lot of energy for the day.”

Berman reports that when Porzingis played professionally in Spain, he had a bout with anemia, in part caused by an unhealthy diet and not enough eating. He now carries iron pills with him on road trips and concentrates on eating enough to keep his energy up.

Porzingis now enjoys an enviable, home-cooked breakfast, but with his parents moving out in March, according to Berman, Porzingis can find good restaurants in New York.