“Detective Kristaps” Creator Matt Hill Talks About His Video
Hill discusses making the video and its inspiration
This week, you may have glanced upon a video on YouTube chronicling the (unfortunately fictional) tales of Detective Kristaps Porzingis, N.Y.P.D.
The video was uploaded on the site on Wednesday by Matt Hill. It had quickly garnered many views. NBA fans are watching New York Knicks’ budding superstar solve crimes instead of hoopin’. In the five minute video, Hill reimagined Porzingis has a master detective instead of a master baller.
We got ahold of Hill and asked him a few questions on his humorous video:
The Knicks Wall: Why did you make the video?
Matt Hill: I made this series about the Spurs called “Spurs Special Forces” that people really liked. When Duncan retired, I decided to branch out and try to make some stuff with other NBA players. So I wrote this, I wrote a J.R. Smith video game demo (that came out earlier this year) and I have a script about the Raptors I want to make at some point.
As far as this video, my friend Dave, who plays KP, was pushing me to do a KP show because he is a giant Knicks fan. I came up with the idea that Knicks fans love KP so much that basically he can get whatever he wants by demanding a trade.
KP being the perfect person that he is, puts that power to good use fighting crime.
Once I had that idea, I thought it was the good foundation for a show and I wrote a script and then have been animating it off and on since August.
TKW: Are you personally a Knicks or Porzingis fan?
MH: I’m from L.A., so I’m a Lakers fan. But I’m actually more a fan of the NBA and I gravitate towards certain players/personalities. I’m super into Embiid right now and of course, KP is the best.
I’m not a Knicks fan, but I love Knicks fans. A lot of my good friends are Knicks fans and I find them to be probably my favorite fanbase in the league. Knicks fans tend to be knowledgable about the game and realistic about their team, there is none of this irrational optimism and blind love for the team’s players that you find in other fanbases. Laker fans, on the other hand, are the worst.
The worst part about being a Lakers fan is other Lakers fans.
TKW: Were there any deleted scenes or altered versions that didn’t make the final cut?
MH: There were some longer lines that I cut down because I wanted to stay under five minutes. There is a nice part (that the actor improvised) where KP goes more into more depth about how he is two kids pretending to be an adult that is pretty good. I’ll probably put that up at some point as a deleted scene.
TKW: How did you get so many people involved?
MH: From making the Spurs series and making other comedy videos in L.A. I have a pool of actors I like to work with. Most of the main cast are those people (David Futernick, Wade Randolph, Paul Isakson, David Pinion). But there were a few people who were on my NBA podcast (Super Hoopers) in the past couple of months when I was making this that asked to be a part of it, so I had them record bit parts when they were on the pod.
TKW: What’s next for Detective Kristaps?
MH: I don’t know…I’ll make some more episodes if there is enough demand or if Kristaps himself asks me to.
Thank you for the discussion, Matt!
— Reid Goldsmith, managing editor
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