Chicago Bulls supporters have recently labeled Otto Porter Jr. as their own version of famed soul musician Lionel Richie.

In his piece for The Athletic, Michael Lee explains how this notion came to life:

Wizards fans made subtle references on social media to Porter’s resemblance to the legendary songwriter and multiple Grammy-award-winning singer whose greatest hits came well before his basketball doppelgänger was born. But in Chicago, where the honeymoon period with the newcomer is underway, Porter can’t escape the comparisons or the playful serenades from the Bulls’ animated and excitable color commentator, Stacey King, whenever he connects from long distance.

When asked to comment about his alleged doppelganger, Porter laughingly claimed that he does not see the resemblance:

“That’s hilarious,” Porter said. “But I mean, I don’t see it. I don’t see it, to be honest with you.”

Porter said his mom even got in on the fun:

Porter said his mother even texted him an image recently of him two side-by-side with Richie. “I was like, ‘Mom, get out of here. I don’t want to hear that,’” Porter said with a laugh. “I might have thrown my hair in corn rows or something, because if I blow it out into a ‘fro…? People will really start getting on to me.”

We will need to disagree with you here, Otto, as the similarities in their facial features are simply unmistakable.

There's no point denying it, and the only thing Porter ought to do is to embrace the comparisons. After all, Richie was quite a stud in his heyday, and perhaps Porter should aspire to do in the league what Richie did for the music scene back in the 1970s and '80's.

He appears to be on the right track, though, as Porter has completely elevated his game since arriving in Chicago in February. In 15 appearances for the Bulls thus far, the sixth-year forward is putting up a career-best 17.5 points (on 48.3 percent shooting), 2.6 3-pointers, 5.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game as one of the team's focal points on offense.