Denver Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr. credited his teammates with helping him as his siblings faced some “bad and sad stuff” over the last week.
Porter’s brothers Jontay and Coban were both in the spotlight during the week ahead of the team’s opening-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA after it was revealed he bet on basketball games, including on his own team, the Toronto Raptors. Coban Porter was sentenced to six years in prison over a fatal DUI crash.
“Some bad and sad stuff happened to a couple of my brothers,” Michael Porter Jr. said after the Nuggets beat the Lakers on Saturday night, 114-103 to take a 1-0 series lead. “But I’ve got 15, 16 more brothers in here. So I knew I had to be here for them, come in here and do my job and try to prepare to do it at a high level.”
Porter scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had two blocks in the game.
He added that it was still difficult to put his mind at ease and focus on basketball with everything else going on.
Two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic praised Porter’s performance amid the tough week.
“That’s why basketball is such a beautiful game, that you don’t think about nothing except what’s going on on the floor,” Jokic said. “Before and after, of course, the stuff hits you. But I think we all reached out to him and of course, family is the first thing. But we are some kind of family, too. So, hopefully he’s going to find peace and he’s going to be in a good spot, mentally.”
Porter averaged 16.7 points, 7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game for the Nuggets. He played in 81 of the team’s 82 games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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