Hawks veteran Kristaps Porziņģis will reportedly miss at least 2 weeks due to illness

Atlanta Hawks big man Kristaps Porziņģis will miss at least two more weeks, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, marking the latest illness concern for the NBA veteran over the past two seasons.

While details are not yet known, Porziņģis was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, last season while playing for the Boston Celtics. He missed a lot of time during the playoffs with the Celtics, and actually left Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals early because he “couldn’t breathe.”

Announcement

But Porziņģis, who was traded to the Hawks last offseason, entered this season healthy and in good shape. He averaged 19.2 points and 5.6 rebounds in the first 13 games of the year, but hasn’t played since Dec. 5 and has now missed seven of the Hawks’ last eight games.

If Porziņģis is out for just two weeks, he could be back on the field by the end of the calendar year.

POTS, according to the Cleveland Clinic, “is a condition that causes a variety of symptoms when you move from lying down to standing, such as a rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and fatigue.” There is no cure, but there are treatments and things that can be done to better manage the symptoms.

Announcement

Porziņģis revealed in October that there were times when his heart rate rose to 130 beats per minute when he went from lying down to standing. All he could do, he said, was “lie on the couch and be a house cat.”

“It hit me, and it hit me like a truck,” Porziņģis said. “My breathing wasn’t good. I did everything I could to feel as good as I could, but my engine wasn’t working the way I wanted it to.”

The Hawks enter Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers with a 14-12 record after losing four of their last five games. Porziņģis, 30, is in the final year of a two-year, $60 million contract this fall.

Although Porziņģis has managed his POTS with the help of doctors successfully in recent months – he even managed to play six games for Latvia at the FIBA ​​EuroBasket tournament last summer leading them to the round of 16 – this will be something Porziņģis will have to deal with for the rest of his playing career.