Rhode was nearly bedridden for the final four months

The conversation took place a few weeks ago. Kristaps Porzingis sent a text.?Karl-Anthony Towns?received it. The directive was clear.I said to him, This is a big year for us. We have to start taking over and taking that next step, Porzingis recalled in an interview with ESPN.And Towns reply?Exactly. Lets do our thing. Lets have a good season, is how Porzingis remembers it.This text connection between two budding superstars wasnt out of the blue. Towns and Porzingis contact each other fairly regularly. Sometimes, one will reach out after the other has a big game. Other times, theyll chat about the league in general.Were real good friends, Towns said. We just really enjoy each others presence, and the communication we have is always a lot of fun.And that text from Porzingis to Towns about starting to take over the league? It seems as if that process is already underway.Entering last season, there were 22 rookies in the 3-point era (since 1979-80) who were 7-footers with 100 blocks, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Those 22 rookies made a total of five 3-pointers.Enter Towns and Porzingis, big men with an imposing inside presence combined with the range of a guard.Towns and Porzingis, and their 272 combined blocks in 2015-16, also hit 111 3s last season -- 106 more than the other group of 7-foot shot-blocking rookies.And outside shooting has continued to be a weapon for both in Year 2.Porzingis 3-point shooting percentage has increased from 35 percent as a rookie to 40 percent thus far this season. Towns percentage has spiked 3 percent from last season to this one, and hes attempting 2.5 more 3-point attempts per game. Not surprisingly, both Towns and Porzingis per-game scoring has increased this season.Maybe thats why Porzingis doesnt mince words when asked about the impact he and Towns can have on the NBA.We are two big men that can kind of change the game, Porzingis said.The Towns-Porzingis friendship began in June 2015, as both were in New York preparing for the draft. Porzingis, who grew up in Latvia and played professionally in Spain, didnt know many of the other draftees.While Porzingis introduced himself at one of the many pre-draft events in the city, he and Towns quickly hit it off.From the beginning, he was a nice guy. Hes like an outgoing type of person, easy to talk to, Porzingis said of Towns, the reigning Rookie of the Year.And we kind of clicked from the beginning.?The feeling was mutual.When youre in part of the same draft class, you always have a certain connection that not many other people can have with each other, Towns said.Porzingis said he asked Towns thousands of questions during the draft and the subsequent rookie symposium, including queries about life in the United States, playing big-time college basketball and about growing up near New York City. Towns asked similar questions about growing up in Latvia and playing in Europe.We exchanged numbers, Porzingis said, and weve been talking ever since.We said we want to have this rivalry for the next 15 years, hopefully. So its nice to have a guy like that who is going through the journey at the same time.Any friendly words between the two might be put on hold this week, as Porzingis Knicks head to Minnesota to play Towns and the Timberwolves on Wednesday and the two teams return to New York to play at Madison Square Garden on Friday.Were both competitive, were trying to prove who is better and kind of compete against each other; thats a good thing, Porzingis said.Were trying to do better for our teams, obviously, but at the same time, its kind of a little bit of that one-on-one thing between us. So I think it will be fun.Its also a rare event when two young 7-footers who play such prominent roles face off.Since the NBA-ABA merger, more than 100 7-footers have played at least 350 minutes in their rookie seasons. Only five of them posted higher usage rates?-- a measure of how many possessions end on a player shooting, getting to the free throw line or turning it over -- than Towns and Porzingis, according to ESPN Stats & Info.All five of those big men are in the Hall of Fame.Its obviously premature to pencil either Towns or Porzingis into Springfield, Massachusetts. But Porzingis brings up an interesting point when talking about how he and Towns can change the game.He cites the recent trend of teams playing small lineups late in games to maximize spacing on the floor, thereby leaving 7-footers on the bench. Porzingis says he believes he and Towns can neutralize that.I think were the type of big men that can be [on the court] late in games, he said. We can be the guys that, if they put a small lineup [on the floor], we can take advantage of that inside and the other team has to make adjustments and put a bigger guy on us.Our ability to stretch the floor, those kinds of things can really affect the game.?Porzingis and Towns are only 21 years old, so its way too early to project with any accuracy how theyll impact the rest of the NBA. Both players are still in their NBA infancy.But by all accounts, Porzingis and Towns each work doggedly to reach their potential. And that shared work ethic might bring them to the same gym this summer. Porzingis says he hopes to work out with Towns in the offseason, possibly playing a few games of one-on-one against the No. 1 pick in his draft class. I think that would be good for both of us, Porzingis said.Towns seems open to the idea.Im always in New Jersey, so I think it would be very easy for me to get to New York, he said.They can figure out the details later, but for now, a pair of 5-on-5 showdowns between the Knicks and Wolves will have to do.Information from ESPNs Ethan Sherwood Strauss and Micah Adams was used in this story. Boty Adidas Nmd Levně . 1, meaning problems for the doping controls at both major international sports events next year. The World Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended the Moscow Antidoping Center on Sunday, saying its operations must improve or a six-month ban on the facilitys accreditation will be imposed. Adidas Nmd Levně Damske . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line. http://www.botynmdlevne.com/adidas-nmd-damske-levne/nmd-r1.html . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. Adidas Nmd r2 Damske .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Boty Nmd Levne . With the short-handed Warriors needing help from someone -- anyone -- to stop a three-game skid, ONeal returned from right knee and groin injuries that had sidelined him for four games and put up season highs with 18 points and eight rebounds. It was just enough to help lift Golden State to a 102-101 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. Misfortune stacked up like spent shotgun shells in the four years since Kim Rhode won her third Olympic gold medal.A brutally difficult pregnancy. A debilitating recovery, one thats still ongoing. Emergency gall bladder surgery. A five-day hospital stay for mosquito-borne illness. Her husbands own health issues. Her fathers broken leg. The deaths of six friends.Bitterness was readily available. All Rhode had to do was let it in.Perspective prevented that door from swinging open.For all thats been thrown at her, Rhode still has a healthy son, has herself on the slow road to recovery and will be joined by her family as she attempts to make history at the Rio Olympics next month.You just have to be thankful for what you have and know that there are people out there that have it worse, that are going through tougher times and just look at the positives in it, said Rhode, who turns 37 on Saturday. I feel very, very thankful of where Im at.Rhode is one of the greatest athletes not just in Olympic shooting, but any sport.She won double-trap gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a 17-year-old senior from El Monte (Calif.) Arroyo High School. Bronze followed at Sydney in 2000, another gold in Athens four years later. Rhode took silver in skeet at the 2008 Beijing Games and gold again, this time in skeet, at London in 2012.Rhode is the first American athlete in an individual sport to earn a medal in five straight Olympics. She is the only woman to win three Olympic golds in shooting.At Rio, she will be the first American to qualify for Olympics on five different continents and has a chance to join Italian luger Armin Zoeggeler as the only athletes to earn a medal in six straight Olympics. She also has 14 national championships and 28 World Cup medals, most all-time.But Rhodes road hasnt always been easy.Heading into the 2012 London Games, Rhode had two major setbacks: A breast cancer scare and the theft of her $15,000 shotgun, Old Faithful, which she had used in her first four Olympics.Oh, and her dog ate her plane ticket less than a week before Opening Ceremonies. Her husband lost his passport.No matter. Rhode has an innate ability to shut out distractions and had a singular focus in London.Using her new gun despite the return of her old one -- authorities found it while searching the home of a parolee -- she tied a world record by hitting 99 of 100 skeet targets in qualifying and cruised to her third Olympic gold. She also finished ninth in trap and became the first shotgun shooter to compete in all three disciiplines at the Olympics.ddddddddddddAdding a degree or two of difficulty, Rhode was pregnant in London and didnt know it.Rhode and her husband, Mike Harryman, were thrilled to learn they were expecting, but joy became tinged with pain as the pregnancy progressed.As part of the pregnancy process, a womans pelvic bones separate to allow space for the baby to be born. In about 2 percent of women, the pelvic bones spread too much, causing intense pain, making it difficult to walk, climb stairs or even roll over in bed.Rhode was in that 2 percent.Unfortunately, I drew the short straw, she said.Rhode was nearly bedridden for the final four months of her pregnancy and even after Carter was born May 13, 2013, she continued to have pelvic-bone issues, compounded by numerous other complications.Six weeks later, Rhode needed emergency surgery to remove her gall bladder. Doctors told her not to lift anything over 5 pounds, putting her son -- he was 8 pounds, 15 ounces -- and her gun off-limits.Gradually, she began to recover and shoot again.But the potholes kept coming.Her husband was hospitalized twice with a condition that affects the colon called diverticulitis, becoming septic during one episode, and her father broke his leg right before the world championships. A stretch of shooting events that included stops in Acapulco, Dubai and Cyprus led to a five-day stay in the hospital for a burst ovarian cyst and what doctors believe was a mosquito-borne illness.Sprinkled among those medical ailments were the unexpected and emotionally-debilitating deaths of a half-dozen friends.Ive had a hell of a three years. No joke, she said.Rhode is still recovering.She continues to have issues with her bones, suffers from nerve damage and the muscles on the right side of her abdomen dont work properly. Endurance is a problem. She wasnt cleared to walk more than a block until this February and has slowly built up her practice sessions to around 500 shots per day; 800 when shes feeling good. Her regular regimen was around 1,000 shots per day.Although slow, progress is being made. Rhodes perspective also remains in place, making her a favorite to win a fourth gold medal in Rio.When you go through all that stuff, you just have to say -- and Im almost afraid to say it -- that it cant get any worse. It can only get better, she said. You just kind of laugh it off and say the next day is going to be better. ' ' '