Michael Porter Jr. says gambling "dangerous habit" with brother away from Raptors for NBA investigation
Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter has been the biggest story in the NBA this week, so it’s no surprise that his older brother Michael Porter Jr. would eventually be asked about it.
With the younger Porter reportedly being the centre of an NBA gambling investigation due to a high volume of prop bets being placed on two of his games for the Raptors this season that he left due to injury, the Denver Nuggets forward spoke about the allegations following last night’s loss to the Phoenix Suns.
As per Denver Sports’ Jake Shapiro, Porter Jr. gave a two-minute answer about the situation, as well as the state of gambling in pro sports when asked about the reported NBA investigation into his younger brother.
“I mean, I know what you guys know. I know that Jontay loves the game of basketball. You know, he’s really excited to play. He has been really excited to play with the Raptors. So, yeah I know, just as much as you guys know, at this point. I know that I’ve known my brother my whole life,” Michael said. “I know what type of dude he is. And I know he’s excited to play basketball. And I highly doubt he would highly doubt he would do anything to put that in jeopardy.”
Michael Porter Jr. on his brother Jontay Porter’s situation and sports gambling around the NBA.
Important comments -> pic.twitter.com/Fkmuhw1QRD
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) March 28, 2024
An ESPN story with a joint byline of David Purdum, Brian Windhorst and Adrian Wojnarowski pointed out that two games involving Porter — taking place on January 26 and March 20 — had an unusually high number of prop bets placed on the player.
In both instances, Porter left the game with less than five minutes played, with under bets on Porter’s individual stats reportedly being the highest moneymaker for NBA bettors those two nights on the DraftKings sportsbook.
A Daily Hive investigation also found Porter had previously interacted with small betting accounts on an alternate Twitter account while away from the NBA in 2022.
“Especially the last few years you hear more you know people in the crowd saying what they need you to score tonight or you know what they don’t want you to score,” Michael continued. “Every night, you’re disappointing someone. You’re disappointing the people if you score too much because they have bet on your under, and you disappointed people if you didn’t score enough so it’s part of it’s part of the game now. I think that it’s obviously a dangerous habit. It’s a dangerous vice for people. I think the love of money is the root of all evil. So I think that even though it is a thing we as players just have to accept… I don’t think we should.
“We get paid a lot of money to play this game and I know the people, these fans, they want to make some money as well. So if they want to put their hard earnings on us we appreciate that you put your trust in us, I guess. But it’s definitely something that [has] kind of taken over the sports world. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. So, I mean, that’s probably my comments on it.”
The Raptors have declined comment on the situation, with Jontay currently away from the team.
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