Kristaps Porzingis says he does not have HIV or AIDS, addressing social media speculation just minutes after the Golden State Warriors announced he is out indefinitely with a health issue.
The Warriors released a statement Wednesday afternoon confirming that Porzingis missed all of training camp and the team’s first five preseason games because of a health matter. The team said he returned to the practice facility on Tuesday and met with general manager Mike Dunleavy and Rick Celebrini, the Warriors’ vice president of player health and performance. Golden State said Porzingis will be around the team, and that an update on practice, his playing status, or a timeline will come when it is available and appropriate.
Porzingis followed with two posts on X.
Hello people, I’m working with doctors and experts to figure out how to be fully back to good health asap. Honestly, I’m getting better and better. I just have to stay patient, and I believe I’ll be feeling great again soon,” he wrote. “It has definitely been frustrating dealing with some health stuff that you can’t exactly pinpoint, on top of injuries throughout my career, so it has added up for sure, but we will get through it. Health is wealth. Thank you for all the support.”
His second post took on the rumors directly.
“I appreciate all the internet doctors trying to diagnose and help, but I’m in the best hands. So everyone can relax now,” Porzingis wrote, adding, “and I don’t have hiv or aids.”
The post spread fast. Within hours, the first message had more than a million views. While fans have been left guessing about his weeks away from the team, theories have circulated online, and some of them claimed he had contracted HIV. Neither Porzingis nor the Warriors has named the condition he is dealing with.
This is not the first time Kristaps Porzingis has had a health problem that doctors struggled to identify. In March 2025, while playing for the Boston Celtics, he missed eight straight games with what he described at the time as a viral illness that the team had not been able to fully identify. The symptoms came back during the 2025 playoffs, when he left Game 1 of Boston’s second round series against the New York Knicks early and looked like a shell of himself for much of the run.
Porzingis later revealed that he had been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, known as POTS. The condition causes a person’s heart rate to jump sharply when they stand up from lying down. Porzingis said his heart rate approached 130 beats per minute just from standing, and he described the fatigue as so heavy that he could lie on the couch all day “and be a house cat.” He has not said whether his current issue is connected to that diagnosis.
The Warriors went into this situation knowing about it. Golden State signed Kristaps Porzingis to a two year, $40 million deal this summer and was aware of the health matter at the time. The team has said little publicly since, and head coach Steve Kerr’s updates during camp offered no clear answers about when the big man would be back.
Porzingis played just 32 games last season, averaging 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game. Injuries have followed him for most of his career, which is what he pointed to when he wrote that everything “has added up for sure.”
For now, Kristaps Porzingis is staying close to the team while he works with doctors, and the Warriors have not set a date for his return to the court.
