Much of the attention around Michael Porter Jr.’s appearance this week on “One Night with Steiny,” an L.A.-based podcast that specializes in the NBA, was on his discussion of the dangers of sports betting.
MPJ’s younger brother, Jontay, is being sentenced on December 10, ironically in Brooklyn Federal Court, for his role in a betting scandal. He’s facing jail time and MPJ decried how gambling is “bad and getting worst,” talking about death threats to players and how the “authenticity and integrity” of the game is at risk.
But in that same podcast, whose hosts don’t steer away from raunch, Porter Jr. once again raised questions about his relationship with women, something that is not new. In the podcast, he said that when dating, he will “test girls” on “their beliefs” by playing them audio of Andrew Tate, whose entire persona revolves around toxic masculinity and who has faced charges of rape, trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering and actual bodily harm in the United Kingdom and Romania. Tate is currently under investigation in the state of Florida.
Here’s the video:
“Another thing I do is see a little bit around their beliefs,” he told Aaron Steinberg and Bob Menery. “Like I’m not saying I’m a misogynist or anything but I’ll throw on some Andrew Tate and see how they’ll react.”
“Like Andrew Tate from five years ago,” interjected Steinberg, referring to Tate’s most active and vile period when among other things he described women as “intrinsically lazy” and said there was “no such thing as an independent female.”
“I’ll bring up conversations and play like devil’s advocate,” Porter continued. “Just to see how this girl thinks about certain things because if they’re too, if they’re too …”
After Steinberg and Menery jumped in and agreed that such testing was a good “strategy” to protect MPJ’s “time,” Porter concluded by saying, “Once they passed that test, and you obviously like them…” again trailing off.
He also raised some eyebrows at another point, describing what he eventually wants in a woman.
“She got to bring something to the table… She got to be able to cook, clean help me mentally… You got to be able to do something. These girls today want to live like queens and do nothing.”
He later told Steinberg and Menery that he will soon begin a “celibacy journey.”
It was the second time in a week that Porter discussed his relationship with women. On his “Curious Mike” podcast two days earlier, he said women are “his vice” and that God tests him through his relationship with women.
“My vice has always come in the form of women,” he said. “And when I’m far from God, and I’m not in my word, I’m not praying, I’m not prioritizing Him, like that seems to be the place that the devil gets me, is in the space of women.”
He did not detail how, when, where and why women have tested him.
Porter’s revelations were just the latest in his complicated history with women, including those who play in the WNBA.
While he has advocated for women players, specifically saying how shoe companies should create signature sneakers for women players, even playing in Breanna Stewart’s brand.
But he has also been criticized for his comments on equal pay for women players, saying this last year about the issue:
”I see it from both sides. I know these females want to get paid more and they’re very talented, but so is a famous ping pong player. The best ping pong player is just as talented as the best basketball player.
“That doesn’t mean they’re going to get paid the same. It’s what the people want to watch. As much as I understand females wanting the same treatment as men basketball players, it’s a different sport. They’re not packing out the arenas. Their TV deals aren’t the same. So, as much as I advocate for women and their equality and the respect of their craft and all those things, you can’t pay them the same thing. I do feel like there should be a little way to make a little bit more money because they are very talented.”
That of course led WNBA players and others to question his support for them. Meghan L. Hall of USA TODAY Sports wrote this: referring not only to sneakers, but his comments about how his mother and four sisters are big fans of the W.
“His campaign feels inauthentic and screams, “I stand with women’s basketball players, like my mom and my siblings, but I draw the line at tangible actions to support them.”
This week in yet another “Curious Mike” podcast, Porter talked about getting Liberty players on the podcast to talk about the Liberty and WNBA.
“I heard they’re dope,” he said of the Liberty. “I want to get Breanna Stewart or Sabrina (Ionescu) on the podcast eventually.”
At this point, that would be entertaining and could be a good tonic for him. A better tonic for him and us might be for Mike no matter how curious to put down the mic. Surely, there’s someone on the Nets staff who can talk sense into him. This is after all New York City, not Denver.