Kristaps Porziņģis struggled to get back out on the court after initially making his Warriors debut on Feb. 19.
And it wasn’t until Golden State coach Steve Kerr walked back comments that he described as a “stupid mistake” where the situation became even more mysterious.
After his debut against the Boston Celtics, Porziņģis was sidelined for six games with an unspecified illness that Kerr, in a radio interview with 95.7 The Game on Feb. 27, stated, based on a conversation he had with Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh, was not POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
The following day, before the Warriors’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kerr shared his regret for even speaking about Porziņģis’s illness.
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something that I’m not qualified to talk about, so I regret it,” Kerr told reporters on Feb. 28. “Even trying to discuss the diagnosis, that was my mistake and I need to leave that to the professionals.”
Porziņģis returned to the lineup on Saturday, and after missing Monday’s game against the Utah Jazz, will play on Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls at Chase Center.
The veteran center spoke to ESPN’s Anthony Slater after Monday’s 119-116 loss to Utah and was asked about his new coach’s regretful comments.
“It wasn’t ideal,” Porziņģis told Slater of Kerr’s comments. “Because it put something out again, so people start talking again. I told Steve it was OK. I know he didn’t mean anything, didn’t want to create hype around my health. He just said what he knew at the moment.”
With the incident now in the past, Porziņģis, who continues to get healthier, is looking forward to being a mainstay in the Warriors’ lineup for the remainder of the 2025-26 NBA season.
“I felt like my body is coming back to what it needs to be,” Porzingis shared with Slater. “One workout [before Monday’s game] and felt pretty decent.”
“I believe I will be healthy now. This is what I really feel. Not to sell anything because I’ve been in and out, out again. But this time, I really feel this is it.”
Porziņģis will play in his third game with Golden State on Tuesday, which he and the Warriors hope is the start of a healthy stretch to close out the regular season.
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