Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has only coached Kristaps Porzingis in one game, but their tenure is already off to a bizarre start.
Since being acquired from the Atlanta Hawks prior to the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, Porzingis has been limited to one game and was out again this past Saturday with what the team listed as a general illness. While speaking with reporters after their Saturday game, Kerr admitted he made a “stupid mistake” earlier in the week, when he went on the radio and dismissed Porzingis’ previous diagnosis with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
Steve Kerr walked back what he said about Kristaps Porzingis’ POTS diagnosis on the radio:
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something that I’m not even qualified to talk about.”
Kerr said he could not disclose specifically what’s going on with Porzingis. pic.twitter.com/dYxGiJGcna
— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) February 28, 2026
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something that I’m not qualified to talk about,” Kerr said. “So I regretted even trying to discuss the diagnosis. That was my mistake. And I need to leave that to the professionals.”
“I can’t really say anything,” Kerr continued regarding the status of Porzingis. “It’s a medical issue way beyond my capabilities of explaining anything. He’s sick. He won’t play, and we’ll keep monitoring him.”
Porzingis battled a lengthy illness last season with the Boston Celtics, which doctors later identified as POTS. And with the Hawks this season, Porzingis was limited to just 17 games.
During a radio interview on San Francisco’s 95.7 The Game Friday night, Kerr discussed the decision to acquire Porzingis despite his limited action this season and downplayed POTS as a concern.
“When I heard about the trade, I read about the POTS diagnosis, and then I called Onsi Saleh, who was with us, he’s now Atlanta’s GM,” Kerr said on 95.7 The Game. “And he’s a good friend of mine. And I called him. I said, ‘Is this POTS story real?’ He said, ‘It’s actually not POTS. It was not POTS.’ So that was some misinformation that was out there.
“I don’t know if anybody’s asked him about it, but bottom line is whatever was bothering him in Atlanta that was keeping him out had nothing to do with the illness last week. So he was just sick. There’s a lot going around, as you guys know, and he was sick enough where he was losing a lot of fluid and contagious, so we just kept him home.”
Prior to the start of the NBA season, Porzingis spoke to The Athletic about managing the illness and its effects. Considering Porzingis has been open about the diagnosis, it was strange to hear Kerr recklessly dismiss the illness publicly without asking his former All-Star center about it first.