TW: Domestic violence
I don’t know if Kevin Porter Jr was thinking about his NBA future while he was assaulting his partner.
On second thought, he probably wasn’t. Because no matter how heinous his acts were— and they were bad enough for him to plead guilty to a charge of reckless assault and a second-degree harassment violation — they weren’t going to fundamentally impact his future in the NBA. So he had nothing to worry about, really.
On June 30th, less than a year after Porter Jr’s arrest, and a few hours after NBA free agency opened up, Porter Jr signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. He was never suspended by the NBA, and I believe the NBA’s investigation of him is still ongoing, somehow, nearly a year later. In other words, the NBA was hoping everyone would forget about it. Might be a little tougher now that he’s back in the league.
Well-known shill Shams Charania made sure to let us know that Sam Permut of Roc Nation Sports negotiated the deal and that Porter Jr had “multiple NBA suitors” after “six weeks of strong play in Greece in April and May,” eventually choosing the Clippers. Somehow, Shams forgot to mention why Porter Jr was playing in Greece in the first place.
No NBA team possesses a moral compass. Every team that didn’t sign Kevin Porter Jr on Sunday didn’t sign him because they simply didn’t sign him. It wasn’t out of solicitude toward the knowledge of Porter Jr’s past, it wasn’t because they care about victims of DV, and it wasn’t because they care about the type of people on their teams. The teams that didn’t sign Porter Jr just happened to not sign him.
Lots of fun things happened during the opening weekend of free agency and I want to discuss those things eventually, but right now I can’t get over the Clippers signing Porter Jr.
In a league where these types of signings have become more commonplace than most of us care to admit, this particular signing might be the most sickening of them all, because Porter Jr was about 7,000 miles away from Los Angeles this Spring when he was playing in Greece. Do you know how far out of their way the Clippers (and the “multiple” other suitors Porter Jr had) went to try and sign Porter Jr? He was out of the league! Out of the country! It would have been so much easier to not sign him. Instead, NBA teams decided that Porter Jr (who is a garbage ass, shitcan basketball player by the way, not that that matters at all here, but makes this whole situation even more confounding) was worth the time and financial investment required to bring him back stateside.
Something fascinating happens after an abuser signs their first contract back in a professional sports league. Everyone in said league stops pretending to care about what they did. It happened with Miles Bridges, who assaulted his partner in front of their children, then re-signed with the Hornets last summer after taking a year off and is now being treated as just another NBA free agent. When he signs with a team in the coming weeks, I can all but guarantee that nothing will be said about that case. It happened with Tyreek Hill, notoriously bad person, who has now become one of the most respected players in the NFL.
Other teams watch a franchise sign a player and think Wait, we don’t have to care if they’re a good person or not? Great. Teams, GMs, and owners look around, waiting for someone else to flinch first, and after that first move, nobody pretends to care anymore. The first team that signs these guys is forced to put on a charade for a few months that the problem player is going through counseling or taking anger management classes, but that eventually fizzles out and then everything is normal again. It’s pretty frustrating to watch unfold time and again.
At the beginning of the NBA season, Charles Barkley pressed NBA commissioner and Casper the Friendly Ghost relative Adam Silver about the NBA being too soft on domestic violence. Silver lied to Barkley’s face on TV, saying "If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.” Apparently, a two-month long vacation to Greece and then a multi-million dollar contract to play basketball in Los Angeles is what Adam Silver considers massive consequences because that’s essentially what Porter Jr got.
Barkley speaking up was a great start to forcing the NBA into caring about the type of people it employs. He’s a former player with a big platform, and it legitimately took some courage to press Silver on this issue. But the league won’t feel any pressure until current players start speaking up too. Someone be brave, please and say you’re uncomfortable with the league’s leniency on abuse
Of course I am cheering on the downfall of the Los Angeles Clippers, but at this point, cheering against the team that signed a guy like Kevin Porter Jr feels a little silly because we know how many NBA teams are willing to sign guys like Kevin Porter Jr.
Adam Silver has made very clear what he allows and doesn’t allow in his league, and violence against women is on the “allow” list. I am not excited to find out what the “line” that players must cross to receive those “enormous consequences” is, because if Miles Bridges didn’t cross it and Kevin Porter Jr didn’t cross it, then crossing the line must take something really, really horrifying. Adam Silver is clearly fine with finding out just what that something is.
Thank you for speaking on this Quinn. This is the most covered up, swept under the rug stuff in sports. The popularity of Tyreek hill astounds me. The stuff these players and teams do is disgusting, sometimes you ask where dignity and values have gone at all.
The person who will beat his wife in front of his children or his girlfriend until she is damn near unrecognizable is not going to be a good employee, he isn't an asset or a business partner. And not everyone deserves a second chance, at least not in the same place. What happens if he doesn't 'do the work' and the rage unleashes itself all over a ref, coach, fan or teammate? DV isn't just personal, it's local and workplace. What would happen if the abuser gets entangled with female team employee, or a teammate intervenes?
Karma's a bitch, NBA.