When the Golden State Warriors traded for Kristaps Porzingis, coach Steve Kerr read that he had been diagnosed with POTS. But the Hawks told Kerr otherwise, he said.
Golden State Warriors big man Kristaps Porzingis doesn't have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, according to head coach Steve Kerr.
In a Friday evening interview with 95.7 The Game, Kerr said Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh told him the 7-foot-2 center didn't have POTS as widely reported. Porzingis was limited to 42 games a year ago for the Boston Celtics in part because of an energy-zapping illness.
He told The Athletic last year that he was diagnosed with POTS, which leads to fatigue and dizziness.
"You know how people say, ‘Oh, I'm so fatigued.' I've never used those words. I don't even like to speak in those terms, but I really was like that," Porzingis told The Athletic. "At that time, I could just lay on the couch and be a house cat."
Injury and illness have limited Porzingis to 18 games in 2025-26, 17 for Atlanta and one so far for Golden State. Heading into Saturday's game against the Lakers, he had missed the previous three games with an illness, prompting the line of questioning from 95.7 The Game's Mark Willard and Dan Dibley.
"When I heard about the trade, I read about the POTS diagnosis and I called Onsi … and said, ‘Is this POTS story real?' And he said, ‘It's actually not POTS.' That was some misinformation that was out there. I don't know if anybody's asked him about it. Bottom line is, whatever was bothering him in Atlanta that was keeping him out had nothing to do with the illness (this) week. He was just sick. … He was sick enough where he was losing a lot of fluid and contagious so we just kept him home and he's doing a lot better now."
Added Kerr: "We had internal discussions and I've talked to Kristaps and he told me he's feeling good. We haven't gone into depth with his illness stuff in Atlanta, but yeah. I got confirmation it was not POTS but it was something else that was really difficult to figure out and that's sometimes the case, even in this modern age where we have a lot of answers, we never have all of them. And sometimes there's mysterious stuff."
Porzingis practiced Friday afternoon and is questionable to play Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
This article originally published at Warriors' Steve Kerr refutes Kristaps Porzingis' POTS diagnosis as ‘misinformation'.
Category: General Sports
