{"id":665541,"date":"2026-03-18T20:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665541\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:53:15","slug":"warriors-kristaps-porzingis-opens-up-about-health-during-return-to-boston-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/665541\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors\u2019 Kristaps Porzingis opens up about health during return to Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 Speaking to a gaggle of mostly Boston media in the familiar setting of TD Garden during Wednesday\u2019s shootaround, current Warrior and former Celtic Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> spent around 10 minutes discussing the emotions around his return, clearing the air about his health, before Golden State faced Boston.<\/p>\n

He did not expect to shed tears during the Celtics\u2019 planned tribute video. However, Porzingis made sure to emphasize that he was thrilled to be back in Beantown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to be back,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cGood memories \u2026 it\u2019s weird, but it\u2019s a good feeling being back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porzingis<\/a> spent two seasons wearing the Celtics\u2019 famous green and white and was a pivotal part of Boston\u2019s 2022 title team.<\/p>\n

His finest moment came in Game 1 of the Finals, when he came off the bench and scored 20 in the series-opening victory after missing over a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball was pretty stressful here, I\u2019m not going to lie, but it comes with the territory,\u201d Porzingis admitted during Wednesday\u2019s shootaround. \u201cWe wanted to win it all, and we did it. I\u2019d say the whole package was special.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as has been the case at each of his six stops during his 10-year NBA career, injuries and illness haunted Porzingis\u2019 time in Boston.<\/p>\n

After dealing with a prolonged illness that rendered him ineffective<\/a> down the stretch of last season, the Celtics\u2019 doctors diagnosed the center with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, thus explaining his chronic fatigue and other symptoms typically associated with the incurable condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super annoying, honestly, super annoying,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cUsually I\u2019m sick for two days, then you\u2019re fine. It was like for a week, I was like what\u2019s going on. It kept lingering and my system couldn\u2019t fully recover. It was super annoying and super frustrating, and then the playoffs was the cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics dealt Porzingis to Atlanta during the offseason, shedding his $30 million yearly salary. He only played 17 games for the Hawks before the Warriors traded Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta<\/a> for his services.<\/p>\n

Porzingis actually made his Warriors debut against the Celtics at Chase Center, but then missed the next two weeks with what Kerr called a\u00a0 \u201cmysterious\u201d illness.<\/p>\n

It was another frustrating setback in a career that has so many of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously this season has been pretty (expletive), you know,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cBut now I\u2019m healthy and feeling pretty good. I\u2019m getting a real good feeling about basketball again, which is the most important. Because everything else goes into second place when you\u2019re not feeling perfect, it\u2019s just natural to feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when Porzingis was struggling, he did everything he could to make sure that negative thoughts \u2013 \u201ccould he continue his career with that condition?\u201d \u2013 did not overtake his psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to put those kinds of ideas in my head, just even in general, for life, I don\u2019t want to be 60% of my energy, I don\u2019t want to live this way,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cEventually, I\u2019ll figure out a way to feel how I want to feel, or at least close to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porzingis was adamant his health is now under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, when I\u2019m actually getting my legs back and getting into good shape, it\u2019s a good reminder of why I love this, and I\u2019m just enjoying playing again,\u201d Porzingis said.<\/p>\n

Since returning, he has looked stellar in five games, missing only two because of their status as part of back-to-backs.<\/p>\n

Bringing an isolation and post-up scoring element missing from the lineup with the absences of Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, he is averaging 17.6 points in just 21.6 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

Off the court, he has already grown to enjoy his new home.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia and the weather is very nice,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cSan Francisco is a beautiful city, and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a correct comparison, but it reminds me of Boston. It\u2019s very walkable like Boston, and it\u2019s compact in a way, like Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of a team fighting for a spot in the playoffs, Porzingis was adamant that his focus was only on thriving in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

But as an unrestricted free agent this summer, he did not rule out the possibility of a return to Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what the future holds, and one thing for sure is that I miss this place a little bit,\u201d Porzingis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013 Speaking to a gaggle of mostly Boston media in the familiar setting of TD Garden during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,160,919,329,3824,164,6,162,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-665541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-golden-state-warriors","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-san-francisco","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116252167723449866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}