Steve Kerr’s shocking revelation about Kristaps Porzingis’ POTS diagnosis

When is it Golden State Warriors changed for center Kristaps Porzingis from the Atlanta Hawks, they were getting a versatile big man with the ability to score inside and out. The procurement issues Porzingis was not talked about on the court, but off it.

Kristaps Porzingis had allegedly engaged in postural tachycardia syndrome, a condition that causes rapid heart rate, dizziness and even fatigue when moving from lying down or sitting to standing up, according to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The symptoms of POTS, which are caused by a lack of blood flow back to the hearing when a person stands up, can also be relieved by sitting or lying down.

Porzingis missed 14 straight games for the Atlanta Hawks before being traded at the NBA deadline to the Atlanta Hawks for Jonathan Cummings and Buddy Hield.

Since the trade, Porzingis has played just one of a possible eight games for the Warriors. He was able to make his debut for the Dubs on February 19 against the Boston Celtics, where he scored 12 points in 17 minutes of play, but then missed three straight games due to illness.

According to the head coach Steve Kerrhowever, Kristaps Porzingis does not deal with POTS. Kerr recently spoke with Willard and Dibs, a weekday afternoon Bay Area radio show, and there he discovered that Porzingis was not dealing with POTS at all.

“When I heard about the trade, I read about his POTS diagnosis and then I called Onsi Saleh, who was with us, he’s the general manager of Atlanta now and he’s a good friend of mine,” Kerr explained. “I called him and said, ‘is this POTS story real?’ And he said it wasn’t actually POTS. It wasn’t POTS.’ So that was some misinformation that was out there.

“I don’t know if anyone asked him about it, but basically what was bothering him in Atlanta that kept him from going out had nothing to do with being sick last week. He was just sick. There’s a lot going on around you as you know and he was sick enough where he was losing a lot of fluids and was contagious, so we kept him home, but he’s doing a lot better now.”

For months now, Kristaps Porzingis is believed to be dealing with POTS and has led many to wonder what is really left of his NBA career. But Steve Kerr says the Warriors received confirmation that Porzingis is not dealing with POTS before the trade that sent Jonathan Cummings and Buddy Hield to the Hawks.

“I really don’t know what’s out there,” Kerr added. “I just know we had internal conversations and I talked to Kristaps and he told me he was feeling good and we didn’t go into depth with his illness stuff in Atlanta, but I got confirmation that it wasn’t POTS, it was something else that was really hard to figure out and that’s the case sometimes, even in this modern age where we never have a lot of answers to everything.”

As of Friday night, Porzingis was listed as “questionable” for Saturday night’s game against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers due to an illness. While Stephen Curry continues to be listed as a “runner’s knee,” Draymond Green is listed as “probable” after missing the Warriors’ last game.

Porzingis has played just 18 games between the Hawks and Warriors this season, averaging 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 36.3 percent from three.