What the Hell Happened to Kristaps Porzingis?

Porzingis reacts to a call at Madison Square Garden during the 2017-18 season, the one year he made an All-Star team. He was averaging 22.7 points and a league-high 2.4 blocks when his knee gave out in February. (Getty Images) Kristaps Porzingis, 31, is away from the Golden State Warriors indefinitely because of a health problem that doctors have tied to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome , a condition he says developed after a respiratory virus he caught with the Celtics in February 2025.

He played 32 games last season , split between Atlanta and Golden State, then re-signed with the Warriors on June 29 for two years and $40 million with a player option. He skipped training camp, hasn’t been at the team facility since early October and, according to an Oct. 21 ESPN report, is seriously considering retirement .

On Nov. 4, Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported that the Warriors stopped paying his $20 million salary , ruling that he was not rendering services. The team can still trade the contract before the Feb.

11 deadline. He has now played for six franchises in 11 years and has never appeared in more than 72 games in a season. Go back and watch the tape from June 25, 2015.

Adam Silver reads the name, Barclays Center boos, and the ESPN cameras find an 11-year-old named Jordan in a Knicks hat. He’s crying. His father nudges him, and he turns to the lens and gives the pick a thumbs-down .

New York spent the next three years apologizing to Kristaps Porzingis on that kid’s behalf. Jordan bought the jersey. He went on ESPN.

Porzingis blocked his shot in a video and told the radio that the boy “already has my jersey.” The redemption arc wrote itself, and everybody in the city was happy to sign it. I never signed. I’m telling you that up front because what follows is going to read like a prosecution, and you deserve to know the prosecutor walked in with a grudge.

I didn’t like the pick. I didn’t like the player. I didn’t like the way he carried himself in New York, and I never bought the idea that a 7-foot-3 man who preferred to shoot from 25 feet was the future of anything.

On Wednesday morning, Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported that the Golden State Warriors stopped paying Porzingis his $20 million salary , ruling that he is not rendering services to the team. He hasn’t been at the Warriors’ facility since early October . Now, he’s 31 years old, and the same report says he is leaning toward ending his career.

Golden State can still trade his contract before the Feb. 11 deadline, which is a polite way of saying his value to the franchise is now entirely a function of the math. So here’s the thing, from a Knicks fan who was never on board.

The draft night nobody wanted. The All-Star season and the dunk that ended it. The phone call with my dad on Jan.

31, 2019. The Dallas years, which I watched from the stands because I live here. The ring in Boston.

The accusation. The injuries that didn’t have names and the illness that eventually got one. And a team that decided this week it would rather fight over a paycheck than wait for him to walk back in the door.