Michael Porter Jr. said he received individual texts from Nuggets teammates checking on him after a difficult week in his personal life. His brother Coban, 22, was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for killing a woman in a drunk driving crash last year. And his brother Jontay, 24, was banned for life from the NBA earlier in the week after being investigated in a sports betting scandal.
“Each one of them texted me separately and just told me they’ve got my back. If I need anything, they’ve got me,” Porter said Saturday night after a 114-103 Game 1 win at Ball Arena. “Yeah, a lot of people were reaching out. Friends, family. So to have these guys understand why I missed practice yesterday and just have my back has been big for me.”
Porter’s absence from practice Friday was because he appeared in court that morning for Coban’s sentencing hearing. MPJ addressed the family of the victim, Kathy Limon Rothman, in the courtroom, saying, “I understand your family’s pain and hurt.”
In his return to basketball Saturday, he registered 19 points and eight rebounds against the Lakers.
“We’re human, so we carry our emotions and the things that go on off the court onto the court,” Porter said. “But I’m mentally tough. I’ve been through a lot through my whole career, so it was just another one of those things that I had to try to play through.”
Jontay Porter was on a two-way deal with the Raptors’ organization when he allegedly shared information about his health with an individual he knew to be a sports bettor March 20. After another sports bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay bet that Porter would underperform in Toronto’s game that night, Porter played only three minutes, claiming he felt ill. A league investigation also found Porter placed bets on NBA games, including one wager on the Raptors to lose a game.
When the investigation first came to light, Michael Porter Jr. said he doubted that his brother would jeopardize his career by gambling on games.
“Definitely tried to compartmentalize,” Michael Porter Jr. said Saturday. “Some bad and sad stuff happened to a couple of my brothers. But I’ve got 15, 16 more brothers in here. So I knew I had to be there for them. And come in here and do my job and try to prepare to do it at a high level.”