KRISTAPS PORZINGIS’ DEBUT with the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 19 went about as one would expect from a player who’d been sidelined more than a month. He was a little rusty, still wrapping his head around the team’s motion offense and his new surroundings.
But there were second-half flashes of his tantalizing potential. Porzingis poured in two post-up jumpers over a mismatch, drilled a 30-footer and volleyball spiked a Nikola Vucevic floater. The Warriors won the 9 minutes, 48 seconds that Porzingis played by 15 points.
Against the Boston Celtics -- with whom he’d won a title in 2024 -- Porzingis showed the floor-stretching, rim-protecting combination that earned him the “Unicorn” nickname as a rookie with the New York Knicks. This is what enticed the Warriors to trade for him midseason despite lingering questions about his ability to manage a mysterious condition that arose after he contracted a virus more than a year ago.
“[He brings] a size and presence we’ve been looking for a while,” Stephen Curry said of the tallest teammate he has ever had.
At his best, Porzingis is one of the top ceiling-raisers in the NBA in almost any scenario. Even in his brief 17-game stint with the Atlanta Hawks, where he landed after an offseason trade from the Celtics, they were a plus-49 with him on the court and minus-93 with him off it.
But the problem has never been ability; it has been availability. Porzingis has sat out 110 games combined the past 2½ seasons.
“I’m confident that I will [be able to stay on the court],” Porzingis said when he joined the Warriors. “I’ll just do everything right and I believe I will.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to turn a new page.”
But when Porzingis addressed reporters afterward, before the fifth question, he let out a yawn.
An uncontrollable, extended yawn. Porzingis apologized, as if to make sure he wasn’t being perceived as rude.
Then he yawned again, sending out a hidden reminder of the persistent exhaustion that is threatening to derail his NBA career: The 30-year-old former All-Star was diagnosed last year by Celtics doctors with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), an autonomic condition that can dramatically increase heart rate and cause dizziness and fatigue.
“I felt all right. Far from being in perfect shape,” Porzingis said. “But I think for [the] first game back after a while, getting some energy back, feeling good. ... I think it’s just a matter of time to get in a better rhythm.”
Three mornings later, Porzingis woke up sick in his team-provided San Francisco hotel room and called the training staff. He went from being the spotlight story of the ABC afternoon game against the Denver Nuggets to being so ill that he couldn’t even come to the arena.
Porzingis practiced with the team a week later. He was upgraded to questionable. The internal expectation was for Porzingis to return against the Los Angeles Lakers. But that Saturday afternoon, he was ruled out again with a general illness, continuing an absence that has now reached six consecutive games, during which he has rarely been seen in public.
It’s the latest blow to a Warriors’ season that is being extinguished into a whimper. Jimmy Butler tore his right ACL in January. Curry remains out indefinitely because of persistent right knee trouble. Combined with Porzingis, that’s $144.4 million in salary on the sideline while the Warriors remain trapped in a play-in spot.
It’s deeper for Porzingis. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer, possessing both the talent to believe another big contract could be ahead but also a health question that has some league executives wondering whether he will have any market at all.
“It’s a little mysterious,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Porzingis’ illness. “We’re obviously working with him and hoping that he can get some clarity. And he can kind of break through and get to a point where he’s consistently healthy, but that’s something that the medical staff is working hard on with him. I’m not going to even posit any medical theories anymore.”
