Continuing his off-season run of media appearances, Brooklyn’s newest addition drew, of course, on personal experience
No one in the NBA knows more about the dangers of gambling than Michael Porter Jr.
His brother Jontay, a once promising NBA player himself with the Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies, has already been banned from the game for life and will be sentenced on sports gambling charges on December 10. Ironically, the judge in the case will mete out Jontay’s punishment -- likely jail time -- in a federal courtroom about a mile from Barclays Center where Michael will be playing, maybe even that night.
So when he spoke about his brother’s “vice” Sunday on his Curious Mike vlog…
…and in general about sports gambling again Monday on the LA-based One Night with Steiny featuring Aaron Steinberg and Bob Menery, people paid attention, but perhaps in the wrong way.
While some in social media chose to focus on Porter’s description how players can help win money for their friends and family, the entirety of what he said was about the dangers of betting to the game, how it is hurting the authenticity and integrity of the game as well as the gamblers like his brother. He detailed death threats “we really do get” when gamblers don’t win their parlays and even proposed an end to digital gambling altogether.
“We’re talking about the authenticity of the game, the integrity of the game,” Porter started. “Sports gambling can affect that a lot.”
Then he spoke about the temptation and the example he chose mimicked in large part his brother’s actions in the G League that wound up leading to his arrest, guilty plea and now quite possibly jail time.
”Think about it. You get mad at these dudes that do the sports betting but think about it. If you could get all your homies rich, by saying, ‘put $10,000 on my under. This one game where I’m going to act like I have an injury and I’m going to come out after three minutes, and you all get a little bag and you did it for one game -- that is so not okay but some people probably think like that. They come from nothing and all their homies have nothing. If I come out of the game and you all hit on my under, we’re all getting a little bag...
“My brother went through his situation and Malik Beazley is going through a situation. Terry Rozier is in some hot water but the whole sports gambling like entity, bro, it’s bad and it’s only going to get worse.”
MPJ then discussed the ramifications he and other players face every night from gamblers on NBA sidelines, including death threats. He wondered whether some irate gambler would eventually seek out and hurt a player.
“We really do get death threats,” he told Steinberg. “The crazy part is that you can’t win anymore because if I do too good, I’m messing up the people who bet on the under and they bet on my over, you’re messing up some people’s money. If they bet on their under or over, you’re messing up some people’s money...
“It’s a main topic of conversation. It’s frustrating,” he added. “You’re in the game when you hear people on the sidelines like ‘Mike, hit one more three, hit one more three’ or ‘I need five more points from you.’ It’s just the main talk of everything. The enjoyment of the game any more isn’t the game. It’s so people can make some money and in reality, way more people are losing money than making money.”
Porter even proposed an end to digital sports books, limiting gambling to betting in Las Vegas casinos. “The way I think it should work, personally, is that if you want to bet, you can bet in Vegas. You have to bet at the casino. So if you want to gamble, you have to go to Vegas and be in the casino, but now it’s all going digital.”
Porter said that the direction things are going gamblers may cause physical violence to a player.
“If someone got hurt. If someone lost a lot of money on a player and they’re, like, ‘I’m about to go find this dude’ and then do something to the player, do you think they’d have to shut down this whole thing?” (The answer from Menerey was “no way,” even when MPJ suggested a star could wind up as victim.)
The hour-long pod also discussed everything from what he wants in a wife to dating to money, and his desire to begin a “celibacy journey” and live a more limited life materially (in New York?!?). Porter promised to discuss it in his next Curious Mike episode. Even in his discussion of his personal preferences in a woman, there was some things left out in social media discussions. While at one point, he noted that his potential wife “had to bring something to the table -- cook, clean, help me mentally, something,” he quickly added that she also has to have “ambition.”
As for the Brooklyn Nets, Porter was clear he has to be ready for a different role. “I gotta lock in. I’ve gotta extend my game,” he told Steinberg and Menery. “I need to get in elite shape i feel like so I can carry a higher load.”
Asked if he felt there was going to be more pressure on him in Brooklyn than there was in Denver, Porter responded, “yes and no.”
“I don’t think people are expecting us to win a championship next year, you know what I mean,” he said referring to the expectations he felt with the Nuggets. “but for me individually, I got to prove that I can take that leap to being the leading type of guy on the team. So in that aspect yes.”
Bottom line for him in Brooklyn? “It’s going to be dope.”