Kristaps Porzingis Has Announced That He Is Officially Stepping Away From The Game Of Basketball To Focus On His Health
Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.Given all the reporting around the Kristaps Porzingis situation, it really felt like only a matter of time before we got the news that he was officially walking away from the NBA. Between the absence, the Shams reporting of a potential trade/retirement, and then the additional reporting that the Warriors weren't paying KP a dime of his $20M salary and that neither he nor the NBPA were fighting that decision, I think we all knew what that meant.
And now, it's official
Man, what a bummer way for your career to come to an end. And while he didn't technically say the words, I think you can probably assume that's what "step away from the game I love" means. My guess is the Warriors will eventually flip his deal, his new team will buy him out, and that'll be that.
I consider Kristaps Porzingis the original basketball alien for this era. He was Wemby before Wemby. A player of his size and skill wasn't exactly as common as it may be nowadays when he first entered the league, and while he didn't end up being the savior of the Knicks and never managed to be healthy enough for the Luka/KP duo to really do anything, for my own personal interests I'll forever be thankful for Kristaps Porzingis. For the rest of my days on this Earth and really even long after I'm dead, I'll still be thinking of this performance/moment
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The KP addition to the 2023-24 Celtics is what helped deliver one of the greatest and most dominant all-around seasons in NBA history. They are the only Celts team in my lifetime to truly reach Basketball Nirvana, which prior to that season was something you could probably only say about the 1986 Celtics. This is a different level than just your normal champion. Those are a dime a dozen. I'm talking about the type of team that reaches a level few have ever touched before in NBA history. As a quick reminder…..
And while he wasn't always available even during the 2024 Celts run, when it came time for him to show up in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, boy did he. As we would come to see, everything fell apart for him health-wise in the 2025 playoffs and now not even 2 years later, he's walking away from basketball due to those same issues. It sucks. Because when KP is healthy and on the floor, he's the ultimate cheat code. When you add a piece like that to your team, anything becomes possible.
Now that the Warriors have a final decision, given the fact that they've played their way back from the dead following their 0-3 start, this is a very valuable trade chip at their disposal. Given his salary total, that opens up a pretty decent market of players, and as an expiring deal there's value in that for another team. We're still probably a little early in terms of that trade happening as teams are still figuring out who they are or what they may need, but by the deadline? There's no reason if the Warriors are still alive that they shouldn't cash things in for a win now piece if they can find it. Jimmy Butler will hopefully be back by then, and in my opinion they should be looking at frontcourt help. I love Al Horford, but you can't go all year and into the postseason with a big rotation of Draymond/Horford/Bassey. Especially if you think you can make a run.
Who could that be? I dunno, maybe Myles Turner ($26M), or Daniel Gafford ($17M) or Jakob Poeltl ($19M)? Admittedly, none of those sound great, but at least they are functioning bodies.
In the end, it's a shitty way to see someone's career come to a close. Obviously what's important is his heath and his actual life and not what value he can provide an NBA team, so I do hope that stepping away helps KP figure things out and get over whatever this mystery illness situation is. It all sounds pretty terrifying if you ask me.