Even though there’s still some question about how much Michael Porter, Jr. will be able to play basketball in the NBA due to an injury, the Denver Nuggets decided to take the chance and drafted him as the #14 pick on Friday.
Nuggets president Josh Kroenke told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.com that he was not sure if Porter would be able to play in summer league or even during the 2018-19 regular season.
Porter, a devout Christian, was the number one high school player in the country, according to ESPN. Then during the first two minutes of his college career at Missouri, he was injured and had to undergo back surgery. His injury sidelined him for most of the season.
However, even if he didn’t make his goal of playing professional basketball, Porter would tell you that it’s his faith in God that means everything to him.
“My parents were strict parents. They held us accountable,” Porter said in a video posted on the website of The Crossing Church’s website. “I remember we had a chart. If you lied, this is your punishment. If you disobeyed, this is your punishment.”
“But when I stepped on a college campus, I could do what I wanted. And that’s when my faith really became my own,” he explains in the video. “Did I want to be the person that parties all of the time, get drunk, sleeps with a bunch of women or did I want to be a person that my parents raised me to be? That’s really when my faith became my own.”
“Even though I’ve had downfalls and struggles, it’s been a dream of mine to influence people for God’s kingdom, because no matter how down I am, I know in the back of my head — God is what matters. Getting people to heaven is what matters. It’s been a dream of mine to get as good at basketball as I can. My platform is so big, maybe I can influence a generation. Maybe I can influence thousands, perhaps millions of people. That’s my end dream,” he continues in the video.
Porter also made a statement Friday showing off the inside of his jacket to a photographer, which had these capitalized inspirational words: Family, Love, Joy, Different, Faith, Patience, Relentless, Greatness, Gratitude, Christ, Goodness, Self-Control, Unity, Kindness, Peace, Strength, Growth, and Hope.
It also had the names of his dad Michael Sr. and mom, Lisa, and his seven siblings: Jontay, Bri, Jevon, Izaak, Cierra, Jayda, and Coban.
“These are all words that mean something to me,” Porter Jr. told The Undefeated.com.”These are all inspirational. It’s words that have meant something to me throughout my life and words that I am striving to be better at. Basically, everything that meant something to me is in the jacket.
–CBNews