The sport knows a lot about wayward talents, and from time to time some great player projects fall by the wayside for not surviving their own character. That’s what the world of Kevin Porter Jr. thought just a year ago, a player whose choice at 30th in the 2019 draft only explains his unpredictable temperament. Since he came to the NBA at the hands of Cleveland, he has accumulated a history that ranges from the irreverent to the criminal. Fed up with his hassles on and off the track and his inconsistent performance, the Cavaliers took advantage of the first time he showed up to send him to the Houston Rockets. Franchise of which, after spending just nine months in it, the player says that it has “potentially saved his life.”
It’s not as if the Texas steppe has appeased the strident personality of Porter Jr., who has kept getting into the odd eggplant. But it has helped him find the balance so that what he does on the court is at least as relevant as his life away from the park. I just love being here. I needed a new setting and they lifted me up when I was on the ground » assures the player for him Houston Chronicle. “They have cared for me and made me trust myself, I hope to return it as soon as possible.”
The remarks could seem somewhat drastic for a young man facing his third season in the league. However, his career actually ran the risk of being cut short of the expectations that his athletic performance suggests. The Cavaliers, a team not exactly talented, were already clear that they did not intend to retain him, and the injury that prevented him from starting last season from the beginning gave them time to find the exit they ended up finding in January. Less than a year later, the few but captivating demonstrations that Porter Jr. has left in Stephen Sillas’ team not only give him the benefit of the doubt, but also a certain amount of the illusion that surrounds a project for the sake of being born. Surely he himself would not have imagined it last December.
(Cover photo by Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
