Kevin Porter Jr. Arrested in New York City
Kevin Porter Jr. Arrested In New York City
Written By Austin Robinson
9/29/2023
Kevin Porter Jr. - CNN
On September 11th, Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested in New York City and charged with assault and strangulation on his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, inside their hotel room in Manhattan. Around 6:45 am, yelling and screaming was reported at the Millennium Hilton New York Hotel, once police arrived, Porter Jr. was arrested after officers saw the wounds and blood on Gondrezick and he was put into custody, being later released on a $75,000 bond.
Porter Jr. has had similar events like this in his career, outbursts such as this one have plagued his career since his rookie season, involving multiple suspensions and fines up to $50,000 for various reasons such as violating health and safety protocol, and getting into arguments with officials and coaches.
Porter Jr. even left a game at halftime after an argument with his coach Stephen Silas, the Rockets coach at the time during a game against the Nuggets in the 2021-2022 season. Clearly, Porter Jr. has a history of these types of actions.
Now, Porter Jr. is on trial and is denying being guilty, even though the evidence is too heavy against him for these allegations not to be true. His defense is that Gondrezick didn’t have a fractured vertebra, which it was rumored she did abstain from the abuse.
It’s just a matter of time before the NBA takes action on Porter Jr. like a similar suspension to Ja Morant or a long term ban might be placed. It’s really unfortunate that Porter Jr. couldn’t have his off the court issues solved as he’s improved every year of his early but probably finished basketball career. Averaging 19.2 points per game with 5 rebounds and almost 6 assists per game to tag along with his scoring in the 2022-2023 season. Porter Jr. also signed a contract extension with the Houston Rockets in the 2021-2022 offseason worth 4 years $82.5 million. However, if looked into more, his contract is only guaranteed $15.9 million for this coming up season and the other 3 years are guaranteed just $1 million. It’s like the Rockets knew he wasn’t going to change.
Due to NBA policies the Rockets or even the NBA can’t fire or release Porter Jr. until a final verdict is made on his trial and felony charges. An example of this being complicated is Miles Bridges last season when he was charged with domestic abuse. Since the Rockets can’t just get rid of Porter Jr., the team's management and front office have publicly announced that they are ready to move on from Porter Jr., and are willing to attach draft capital to make a trade go through. Unfortunately for the Rockets no team is budging to even think about trading for Porter Jr. So it seems to be that Porter Jrs. contract is just going to be dead weight on a team that is ready to take their next step into playoff contention.
Kevin Porter Jr. has potential to become a possible All-Star but with more and more details coming out against him, it may be the end to his early basketball career.