Michael Porter Jr. was a highly-touted prospect coming out of high school, but repeated back injuries limited him to just three games at the University of Missouri. Instead of going near the top of the lottery, Porter Jr. fell to the Denver Nuggets at no. 14 in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Porter underwent a back operation in the fall of 2017 and a second spinal surgery in July of 2018, and the plummet of his draft position has always been blamed on health concerns.
The Los Angeles Clippers passed on him at no. 12 and no. 13 after their team doctor supposedly wrote a memo that assessed that Porter Jr. “would never play basketball again”, and Clippers head coach Doc Rivers acknowledged that injury concerns scared them away from Porter Jr.
“It was brutal for us,” Rivers said about passing on Porter Jr. “We had [Porter Jr.] on our board, just the medical report, the red flag was so hot.”
Turns out, there may be another reason why Porter Jr. slipped, and it has nothing to do with his spine.
After Denver's Game 4 loss on Wednesday, Porter Jr. called out the Nuggets' gameplan in his postgame press conference. “To beat that team, we've gotta get more players involved,” Porter Jr. said, implying himself.
In response to the clip, former Memphis Grizzlies GM John Hollinger, who passed on Porter Jr. to draft Jaren Jackson Jr. at no. 4, implied that teams might have stayed away from Porter Jr. for attitude reasons.
“How do I put this gently … medical was by far the main reason he fell in the draft. It might not have been the only reason” Hollinger tweeted.
Porter sat out 2018-19 as he recovered from his back operation, then saw limited minutes during the 2019-20 regular season before the hiatus. In the eight bubble games prior to the playoffs, Porter averaged 22.0 points and 8.6 rebounds on 55.1% shooting to earn a spot on the second-team All-Seeding Games team. However, In 11 playoff games with tighter defense, his numbers have dipped to 12.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game on .451/.368/.769 splits.
Porter Jr.'s off-the-court behavior has been spotlighted in the bubble prior to his recent press conference. He previously came under fire for pushing coronavirus conspiracy theories on social media, causing Snapchat to remove his videos.
It looks like Snapchat has removed Michael Porter Jr.’s videos claiming the coronavirus was being overblown and ‘being used for a bigger agenda and population control.’ pic.twitter.com/DxuzTvSMQT
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) July 29, 2020
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