Kevin Porter Jr. made headlines on Saturday after the Houston Rockets guard reportedly left the arena mid-game against the Denver Nuggets. According to reports, Porter had a heated exchange with assistant coach John Lucas which led to the 21-year-old abruptly walking out on his team at halftime.
As it turns out, Porter has some deeply-rooted issues that played a significant role during Saturday night's outburst. According to ton Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon of ESPN, the Rockets are well aware of KPJ's problems with controlling his temper:
Porter has well-documented anger management issues — which the team believes he has made progress on — but those surfaced again Saturday and ultimately drove him to leave the arena instead of rejoining the team for the second half, sources said.
This isn't the first time Porter had a highly-publicized spat with his team. Prior to making his move to the Rockets, the former USC standout also had an infamous bust-up with his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. This led to the Cavs eventually trading away Porter, despite the fact that he had shown a lot of promise as a youngster.
It's clear that Porter has yet to get a hold of his anger management issues. It reared its ugly head again on Saturday and it manifested in a selfish act that has once again put him in a bad light. Moreover, the Rockets have decided to punish Porter's indiscretion by handing him a one-game suspension. This means that along with teammate Christian Wood, who also got suspended for his role in Saturday's fiasco, Porter is unavailable for Tuesday's tilt against the Sixers.
For his part, however, Rockets head coach Stephen Silas was quick to defend the embattled Porter. The 49-year-old shot-caller acknowledged the error in Porter's actions, but he also came out to praise the youngster and reiterated his role for the team:
“He is emotional,” Silas said of Porter. “He's a competitor. He's a good kid. He owns up to his mistakes when he makes them and tries not to make mistakes again. That's pretty much all you can ask from a guy. Yeah, we put a lot into him. We knew that he had a past before he came here. But, we hold everybody accountable to what they do. He crossed a line and he'll be back. And we'll still love him.”
Unlike his situation in Cleveland, it doesn't sound like Porter is going to be parting ways with the Rockets after Saturday's dust-up. Houston appears to be more forgiving and understanding of Porter's current predicament and it seems that they are more than willing to help him battle his demons.
In 22 starts for Houston this term, Porter has averaged 12.8 points (on 36.6 percent shooting), 4.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.3 steals in 29.8 minutes per game. He's also draining 1.9 triples per game on a 32.8-percent clip. At this point, KPJ has established himself as a key piece of the Rockets' young core and it appears that he has a major role to play for the squad moving forward.
Nevertheless, Porter must keep in mind that he is anything but invincible. Houston has given him a pass here, but another outburst of this nature could cost him dearly. It would be a total shame if he is unable to live up to his potential just because of his attitude problems.
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