Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested in New York and charged with assault and strangulation, reports Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscriber link).
Police arrived at a hotel at 6:45am Eastern time following a 911 call.
“Upon arrival officers were informed that a 26-year-old female sustained a laceration to the right side of her face and was complaining about pain to her neck,” a New York Police Department spokesperson said. “A preliminary investigation on scene determined that a known individual struck her multiple times upon her body and placed his hands around her neck.”
The woman was taken to a hospital to be evaluated.
According to Aaron Katersky of ABC 7 New York, Porter arrived at the Times Square hotel early Monday morning after a night out, and his girlfriend, a former WNBA player, wouldn’t let him into the room because she was upset at the hour of his return. Porter gained access to the room with the help of security and that’s when the alleged assault occurred, police sources tell Katersky.
Rockets general manager Rafael Stone declined to comment on the incident, according to Feigen.
Porter was considered one of the top prospects in his draft class, but he fell to 30th overall in 2019 in part due to off-court concerns — he was suspended indefinitely during a portion of his lone college season at USC for personal conduct issues. During his rookie season with Cleveland, he was suspended for a game for making improper conduct with an official.
During the 2020 offseason, Porter was arrested for improper handling of a firearm following a car accident. He opened 2020/21 on the inactive list due to the gun charge, which was later dropped.
In January 2021, Porter had a locker room outburst, which caused the Cavaliers to publicly say they would either trade or waive him. The Rockets basically got him for nothing in return — they gave up a heavily protected second-round pick.
The following January, Porter was suspended by Houston for a game following a verbal altercation with then-assistant coach John Lucas. The 23-year-old reportedly threw an object in the locker room and left the arena before the game ended.
Porter is undeniably talented — he averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals on .442/.366/.784 shooting in 59 games (34.3 minutes) last season. However, it’s pretty clear that the Rockets aren’t entirely sold on him being a centerpiece of their future.
For example, Porter signed a four-year, $63.4MM+ rookie scale extension with Houston last October, but only his 2023/24 salary ($15.86MM) is guaranteed. He has a $1MM partial guarantee for ’24/25, followed by a non-guaranteed salary in ’25/26 and a non-guaranteed team option in ’26/27, the final year of the deal.
The Rockets also drafted guard Amen Thompson fourth overall a few months ago and gave Fred VanVleet a three-year, maximum-salary contract in free agency (the third year is a team option), so Porter’s role will likely be reduced this season — assuming he remains on the team following his latest off-court incident.
Wow
Comments are on for this story…Weird
Only MLBTR seems to limit them.
Because a lot of baseball fans are awful human beings!
Ya that comment section became a cesspool several years ago, to the point I largely avoid it for the last 5ish years
There is also a significant amount of more people there, so there are higher chances of that issue.
I remember when it was basically just me here lol, but we’ve seen, even the last few years, how even a slight growth can attract certain unfortunate elements, very reminiscent of the sickness of social media
He done.
Let’s hope so!!!
Never plays another NBA game. After everything else nobodys signing up for this dude.
Don’t worry, Brooks and FVV are here to save the day. Once they get on the court, everyone will become saints and choir boys. /s
Seriously, though, this is unfortunate news. Also not entirely unexpected given his history, hence why he was acquired for so little. Hope the woman is doing okay. The league needs to come out strong here.
Given his contract structure, this may very well be the end of his future with the Rockets. If they are truly serious about changing their culture, it certainly should be. Otherwise, it’s all talk.
Lawsuit coming the way of that hotel. Security took away the woman’s security by letting that drunken idiot in.
Porter will likely just get a slap on the wrist like most of these professional bullies.
It was his room. If she didn’t feel safe she should have left.
That’s not how that works
The story doesn’t provide enough info to make that determination. Before I continue, let me make it clear that if an investigation finds these allegations to be true, then I hope they throw Porter out of the league.
IF the room was in Porter’s name and IF they were not aware of a potential DV situation, then they were perfectly within bounds to let him into the room (“I lost my key” is easy). IF either of those conditions are untrue, then they could be in for a whopper of a lawsuit.
You’re assuming a lot. There’s nothing in the article that he was drunk or had any interactions with him to determine whether or not he was a threat. Just imagine an nba player is staying at your hotel
, goes out drinking and the hotel telling him he can’t go to his room because his gf is mad he started out late. The only question I have is, did he obviously seem like a threat to her and how long after the security gave him access to the room did the attack take place?
Idiot. Hopefully the Association comes out with a big penalty. And the Rockets should cut him. No amount of on-court value is worth that, and he’s not even that good. Their image is already in the toilet of a public restroom.
Agreed with darthdragula that the hotel should also catch an absolute motherload of flak for that monumentally stupid decision. Have they not received training in what to do with belligerent patrons or domestic disputes? Because that has to be against protocol. And if it’s not, they’re imbeciles. The girlfriend should never have been put in that situation.
The Rockets put a lot of time and effort into helping this kid out. It looks like they were just prolonging the inevitable.
Miles Bridges type of suspension? A year or 1 season and 10 games?
He is history in the NBA. Bridges was not this bad. Plus he did this to a WNBA player too. He was mad went looking for her in the room. Allegedly, Bridges girl hit him first before he went off. She also stalked him repeatedly too and is not a nice person like Kyrse is. We shall see.
Bridges was worse. They slapped child abuse and assault on the charges(convicted or not) and the fact it was in front of a kid set a bad example beyond the usually domestic drama.
Also the hotel will get away with it “he came to the desk saying he lost his key so the staff escorted him and gained entry to his room” if the room is in his name they didn’t do anything technically wrong. We may not agree but we’ve seen it before.
Disappointed in him and he deserves a hefty fine beyond Ja and Bridges easily, if not it’s double standards. His accumulated number of issues should make this a huge “everyone cut the crap, the league won’t take it anymore” moment………At least Amen gets more mins I guess.
Bridges, Morant, Porter… The NBA needs to undergo further psychologic tests before letting these youngsters enter the league and hand them millions of dollars
League doesn’t care enough. These players help them bring in billions.
Lumping Morant in with these two felons seems a bit ignorant
You do remember that there’s an ongoing police investigation of him allegedly beating up a teenager and threatening him with a gun, right?
If you had heard Morant speak before all this stuff happened with him, you would never believe it’s in his character to be involved in situations he supposedly has, though from outside perspective, most of those seem a little overblown, as most everything is nowadays (admittedly, I’m not aware of a lot of thos type of stuff). Dude sounds like a 45 year old in a 20 year old body. Was extremely impressive to me
The issue is participating in the sickness of social media, which is so ingrained in people, especially people my age, and a lot younger, they cant even fathom the concept of not being heavily involved in that type of stuff, and even if you arent, it leaks into real life, where there isnt much escaping it.
So security help in assault her? Seems a little fishy
Also the jumping to conclusions brigade is at it again. What happens if its proven false, as a bunch of these situations are…will they retract it, or will they continue to act as though it happened for years forward, as it is with all those other situations. I dont get why we all even need to know this type of stuff or why anyone’s comments on it should have any bearing on anything. The only people’s opinion that matters is those potentially involved
That’s why I stick to the basketball outcome. Not my place to say anything about this. Even this much is more than I like to
Basketball wise, I guess this fits into the stuff I’ve been taling about with them needing to figure out who they would be using with so many similar pieces they have around their roster…kind of opens that up for them. They got rid of some interesting guys, but I think now they kind of have a more set rotation
He won’t even see a dime this year. :(
He might find one walking down the street but he will be fine. He’s got millions and I’ll get more
This is his contract . Not guaranteed. So Rockets can just move on. I said they should have traded him at TD last yr. Now they will get nothing. Some kids just can’t grow up. Wasted talent ……..
link to audacy.com
I am soooo surprised about hearing something like this about Kevin Porter.
*says no one
Silver only cares if it messes with his money or someone he can me a example of that’s not a Star player
Thug
Hope he didn’t ruin her beautiful face. She may pull a Serena and go vanilla after getting a taste of the common thug.
What a DBag
Dude ruined his second chance…