“The most meaningful assist of Michael Porter Jr.’s career came off the court.
While the Nuggets forward recovered from a second back surgery that sidelined him for his first NBA season in 2018, his younger brother by roughly 15 months and childhood best friend, Jontay, tore his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments before what should’ve been his sophomore season at Missouri. That came after Porter reclassified to the high school class of 2017 to share a freshman college season.
“That’s when I first got hurt, and he really got to shine,” Michael said after Denver’s 125-119 win over Jontay and the Raptors on Monday at Ball Arena. “He could’ve went into the draft after that freshman year when I went down, and he really shined, but he decided to come back to Mizzou and play that second year, thinking he could be probably (a) lottery (pick), honestly.”
Despite re-tearing the same ACL less than a year later, Jontay entered the 2019 draft but didn’t get selected. Jontay got his first NBA opportunity with Memphis in March of 2020, making 11 appearances with the Grizzlies before being released. The knee issues returned and forced Jontay to take a year away from the game. That provided plenty of time to reconsider whether he had a future in the family business, but Michael was insistent.”
pneuma33
If anyone knows about perseverance, it’s MPJ.
Holden_place
The junior Porter was impressive last night. Glad to have him join us if Raptors move on from him
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Article by Vinny Benedetto is not paywalled.
“The most meaningful assist of Michael Porter Jr.’s career came off the court.
While the Nuggets forward recovered from a second back surgery that sidelined him for his first NBA season in 2018, his younger brother by roughly 15 months and childhood best friend, Jontay, tore his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments before what should’ve been his sophomore season at Missouri. That came after Porter reclassified to the high school class of 2017 to share a freshman college season.
“That’s when I first got hurt, and he really got to shine,” Michael said after Denver’s 125-119 win over Jontay and the Raptors on Monday at Ball Arena. “He could’ve went into the draft after that freshman year when I went down, and he really shined, but he decided to come back to Mizzou and play that second year, thinking he could be probably (a) lottery (pick), honestly.”
Despite re-tearing the same ACL less than a year later, Jontay entered the 2019 draft but didn’t get selected. Jontay got his first NBA opportunity with Memphis in March of 2020, making 11 appearances with the Grizzlies before being released. The knee issues returned and forced Jontay to take a year away from the game. That provided plenty of time to reconsider whether he had a future in the family business, but Michael was insistent.”
If anyone knows about perseverance, it’s MPJ.
The junior Porter was impressive last night. Glad to have him join us if Raptors move on from him