Michael Porter Jr. is trying his best to keep his mind on the Western Conference’s first-round playoff series against the Lakers, but he can’t help but think about his brothers’ situations. Not only was Toronto’s Jontay banned for life from the NBA due to betting scandals, but now his younger sibling Coban has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Both situations have occurred in the past couple of weeks, but the most recent being dealt with is his brother’s jail time after he killed a woman in Colorado last year due to drunk driving.
Despite his family’s struggles, he says he feels stronger alongside his teammates, who’ve shown their support during this hard time. “Definitely tried to compartmentalize, some bad and sad stuff happened to a couple of my brothers,” he said after Saturday’s first clash against the purple and gold.
“But I got, you know, 15, 16 more brothers in here, so I knew I had to be here for them and come in here and do my job and try to prepare to do it at a high level,” Porter added.
Due to Coban’s sentence, the Nuggets star had to miss last Friday’s training session in Denver to testify on his behalf at the hearing. “To have these guys understand why I missed practice yesterday and just had my back has been big for me,” he said.
Cuban had pleaded guilty two months ago to vehicular homicide and assault as part of a plea agreement. According to the press, prosecutors said last week that Michael’s younger sibling had blood alcohol level of .19 and was speeding at the time of the crash.
Porter Jr., who produced an impactful game in the 114-103 win over the Lakers, said each of his teammates texted him to say “that they got my back if I needed anything, they got me.” The forward dropped 19 points and earned 8 rebounds in 38 minutes this weekend.
Nikola Jokic took the mic for his teammate and shared support amid struggles surrounding the Porter family
“It’s a hard thing to do, but I think when you’re on the court, you don’t think about it,” he said of Michael that night. “That’s why basketball is such a beautiful thing, that you don’t think about nothing except what’s going on on the floor. Before and after of course the stuff hits you, but we all reached out to him. It’s a thing that of course family is the first thing, but we are some kind of family too.”
The 25-year-old, who has struggled with injuries during the first seasons of his NBA career, has proved that’s all in the past as he just produced a career-high 81 games in Denver this campaign.
“We’re human. We carry our emotions and things that go on off of the court onto the court, but I’m mentally tough. I’ve been through a lot through my whole career, so you know it was another one of those things I had to play through,” the forward shared.
