Is Michael Porter Jr. a short-termer in Brooklyn. Brian Windhorst of ESPN thinks so. As he noted on his Hoop Collective podcast Monday:
“I would just say that one player to watch this year just in general is Michael Porter Jr. There’s been a lot of attention paid to whether Karl-Anthony Towns got a contract extension which naturally why wouldn’t there be, the man’s a champion. Porter has not gotten a contract extension, he’s in the last year of his contract and he had a pretty good year last year after getting traded there by Denver and you know if a guy’s not in the contract extension you think about you see a possible trade candidate.”
Brian Lewis in the New York Post’s season preview thinks so too. As he wrote over the weekend in Nets season preview.
“Acquiring Porter (and Denver’s unprotected 2032 first-round pick) for Cam Johnson is a home run deal by any measure. The sweet-shooting small forward led Brooklyn in scoring last season, and could again. But Porter is on a $40.8 million expiring contract and still hasn’t signed an extension since becoming eligible for one on July 6. Is he a building block or asset? If Porter isn’t extended, he’s going to have his name bandied about in trade rumors right up until the Feb. 11 deadline. And if the Nets do move him, is it going to be for future assets? Or do they kick in draft picks of their own for an upgrade?”
Neither Porter Jr. nor Sean Marks has expressed any level of panic about an extension. After all, the Nets have until June 30 to proffer him a contract and Marks has spoken about how much he likes Porter Jr. as a player and as an individual. In return, MPJ has continually expressed his desire to stay, praising his young teammates and being the first Net to publicly suggest off-season moves and internal improvements could take the franchise from its third worst win total ever — 20 — to its second highest — 50.
As everyone knows, Porter Jr. had his best season ever last year, delivering 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists. On the other hand, he missed 30 games and admitted that after he was snubbed for his first All-Star berth and with all that tanking, he lost interest. Not to mention the steady stream of controversies engendered by his “Curious Mike” podcasts
“One thing I regret is that once I didn’t make that All-Star game, I kind of let my foot up off the gas because there was really nothing we were playing for anymore,” Porter said on “Curious Mike” last month. To which Draymond Green responded on “The Draymond Green Show,” his podcast, “You weren’t snubbed! If you finish the rest of that year strong, everybody’s now on the top of their mind coming into the season like, ‘Yo, we got to watch Michael Porter Jr.’ Now, because he didn’t finish the year strong, then people’s just like, ‘Oh man, he’s just out there playing on a bad team to make an All-Star game.’”
The implication was that not only did he hurt himself, he hurt his reputation around the league. Indeed, a lot of what MPJ has said on his “Curious Mike” and others’ podcasts has done that. Last season, in fact, the Nets had to take him aside and let him know he’s in New York now and his comments will get magnified, often to the detriment of him and his team.
Specifically, the organization was offended, as were many of its fans, by his comments on misogynist Andrew Tate — saying he would “test girls” on “their beliefs” by playing them audio of Tate, whose entire persona revolves around toxic masculinity. Tate is currently fighting extradition from the U.S. to the U.K., where he and his brother face a total of 59 criminal charges, including rape and human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Since then, Porter Jr. said he’s opposed to gay sex but admitted that he “kicked it” with a transsexual woman in Taiwan a couple of years ago adding he didn’t realize she was trans because gender-altering surgeries in Asia ”are so good.” Indeed, Porter’s podcast controversies have become so common that no one in the media (including us) even asked him about it at Media Day.
Of course, he’s not required to tow any line or avoid others. His speech is protected as is every American’s and he often takes on subjects that no one else will. The players’ union contract offers more protections. However, as the Tate commentaries attest, your employer is also within his or her rights to condemn you or simply ask that you understand there are boundaries.
Most recently, Porter Jr. decided to interview SNEAKO, another in the long list of right-wing social media activists born out of the gaming community. His views have been identified as homophobic, antisemitic, misogynist and violent, getting him banned at one point or another from YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram. Like his controversial ally, Nick Fuentes, his views on Jews have been deemed particularly hateful. He’s wished Adolf Hitler a happy birthday, said “I’ll be the Nazi and I’ll shove you in the oven like a dirty Jew.”
A lot of the criticism of the interview revolved around giving SNEAKO a forum, While much of the interview was a discussion of various conspiracy theories, the presence of demons in American life, the afterlife, Jeffrey Epstein, and other topics popular with his mostly young male audience, there was commentary on the power of the Jewish community.
After SNEAKO suggested that Jews as a people have outsized influence throughout the world — a trope used by the Nazis to justify their antisemitic laws and ultimately the Holocaust — Porter responded. “That community specifically, you can call people this name, that name, you can use any slur you want. You start talking about the Jewish community, that’s a completely different animal. That’s the only group you literally cannot say anything derogatory towards. or it can ruin your entire life. your entire image… They band together for sure.”
SNEAKO noted at one point that forty percent of NBA owners are Jews. Porter did not endorse SNEAKO’s positions and after the interview criticized him.
In the same interview, Porter also expressed frustration about how so many fans at Barclays Center are rooting for other teams, citing the Nets recent preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers which was LeBron James first appearance in a Sixers uniform.
“We just played a preseason game the other night against Philly. You would’ve thought we were in Philly. We gotta get the Brooklyn Nets fans back in there and actually be louder than the opposing team. When we play (New York) Knicks, (Boston) Celtics, Philly, (Los Angeles) Lakers, it’s mostly their fans. It’s crazy,” said Porter.
How much of all of this affects negotiations, how much is used by Nets? It’s hard to know and again, free speech matters. But, it’s difficult to imagine how it helps. And how far apart are they on money, on years? Also hard to tell. The final year of his five-year, $170 million deal signed will pay him $40.8 million.
Last season, even after the first round of controversy, the Nets didn’t bite on trade packages reportedly offered at the deadline. Then, there’s the key question: what would the Nets want in return? They already have 13 first round picks, second to the OKC Thunder’s 15. Stay tuned. Maybe you’ll find out on “Curious Mike.”
Kurt Helin
