{"id":955292,"date":"2026-11-06T23:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T23:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955292\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T23:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T23:48:08","slug":"nba-2026-kristaps-porzingis-steps-away-from-basketball-as-draymond-green-reacts-golden-state-warriors-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955292\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA 2026: Kristaps Porzingis steps away from basketball as Draymond Green reacts, Golden State Warriors, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Golden State Warriors centre Kristaps Porzingis said on Saturday AEDT he is stepping away from basketball due to health issues.<\/p>\n<p>The 7-foot-2 (2.18m) Latvian, who began his NBA career with New York in 2015, has not played this season for the Warriors, telling the team he would not report just before pre-season workouts began. <\/p>\n<p>Watch an average of 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week of the NBA regular season plus the best of the NBA Playoffs LIVE with ESPN on Kayo Sports | <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/ussports?extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkbasketball-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-basketball-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Get Kayo now &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis season I was really looking forward to running it with this group, but as I ramped up, my body didn\u2019t respond the way I anticipated,\u201d Porzingis said in a statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m doing good, but I know what it takes, and I\u2019m not where I want to be to perform at the level that I expect from myself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this point, I\u2019ve made the decision to prioritise my health and step away from the game I love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Porzingis, 31, helped the Boston Celtics win the 2024 NBA title. He was traded to Atlanta in 2025, the same year he was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a neurological disease.<\/p>\n<p>Porzingis did not mention POTS in talking about why he is stepping away, nor did he say he was retiring from the sport.<\/p>\n<p>Warriors stalwart Draymond Green commented on the centre\u2019s absence, in essence labelling him an afterthought. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one\u2019s sitting around bashing this guy or even worried about him, for that matter,\u201d he said, via The Athletic\u2019s Sam Amick. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn our minds, we\u2019ve moved forward with the players that we have here &#8230; you can\u2019t sit and worry about spoiled milk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks traded Porzingis to the Warriors this past February, and after playing 15 games last season for Golden State, he signed a two-year deal worth $40 million in June, although multiple reports say the team is not paying him while he is away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this situation, I want to show the utmost respect for the Golden State Warriors and work with them to find a solution that makes sense,\u201d Porzingis said.<\/p>\n<p>Porzingis has been in contact with Warriors medical personnel as the team has started the NBA season 6-3 and is on a six-game win streak.<\/p>\n<p>Porzingis has averaged 19.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 blocked shots over 10 seasons with New York, Dallas, Washington, Boston, Atlanta and Golden State. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors centre Kristaps Porzingis said on Saturday AEDT he is stepping away from basketball due to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-955292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}