Kristaps Porziņgis didn’t get much of an offseason to celebrate his first championship with the Celtics—his summer was all about recovery. Just days after Boston’s victory parade, he went under the knife to repair a torn retinaculum and a dislocated posterior tibialis tendon, an injury he picked up in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against Dallas.
He was back in November. But he was out again after playing against the Pistons in late February, this time with a non-COVID illness. He remained out for 8 games, and the questions were mounting. Because there was no clarification on what is he diagnosed with. But now the 7-foot-one center has cleared the air surrounding his illness.
He opened about it after being instrumental in the Celtics victory over the Nets. The Celtics big man admitted the experience was frustrating, especially since he wasn’t sure what was wrong at first.“Yeah, it was extremely, extremely frustrating not knowing what I had,” Porziņgis said. “And at the end, it was some sort of—I don’t know exactly, but I think it was some sort of upper respiratory thing that turned into, like, something heavier. Like bronchitis is the word. Uh, something like that along those lines.”
At one point, there was concern that he might have mononucleosis, but tests ruled it out. The possibility had him worried, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Porziņgis, who rarely gets sick, said the illness left him completely drained for over a week. “I haven’t been sick for probably ever in my life. So I was really for a week just laying at home, trying to recover,” he explained. “And after that, I still had lingering fatigue, and I still have it a little bit. But at least I’m now getting into more or less shape form to be able to play.”
Even as he works his way back, the lingering effects are noticeable. “After each workout, I was—boom—big crash,” he said. “So it was really fatigue. It’s, like, not normal. And so it’s taking a little bit longer, but I’m doing everything all my biohacking stuff that I know, and just trying to—trying to get back in the best shape as possible.”
The Latvian had to set the record straight. During Monday’s game, he took to social media to give fans an update on his condition. After the match he revealed why was he compelled to do that.
He explained that the constant chatter about his availability had been frustrating. “Yeah, ’cause I was just getting a lot of questions,” Porziņģis said. “I saw it on social media and stuff, like people want to know what’s going on, why I’m out. And obviously, it was frustrating for me. I’m just ‘illness out, illness out,’ like, come on, this guy can’t play through some illness? Like, you know, even I—I would think that, you know.”
Porziņgis wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t sitting out for something minor. “I just wanted to let people know that I’m really dealing with something, and I would never sit out for a cough or something, you know?” he said. “If I’m out with an illness, it has to be something where I really can’t play to help the team.”
Despite the initial skepticism, he was grateful for the support he received after speaking out. “I got a lot of support back. It was really nice,” he said. “I’ll always appreciate the support and love that I get from Celtics fans, and fans back home and everywhere.”
By addressing the situation directly, Porziņgis shut down speculation and reassured fans that his absence was not something he took lightly.
This is a developing story…
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