Trade & FA 2024-25:

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

But he has been kicked off of multiple teams.

Starting at USC in college he was suspended indefinitely by the coaching staff due to "conduct issues" that were never specified until after he declared for the draft. 

CLE gave up on him after his rookie year despite solid production because of several issues. He got hit with a weapons charge, driving under the influence, and a car crash in the offseason before his 2nd year that caused him to be suspended by the NBA. He didn't even play a single game for CLE in his 2nd year because he threw a tantrum at his teammates and coaching staff, because they had to move his locker to bring in a new guy after a trade. It was such a bad blowup that CLE announced that they will either trade KPJ or cut him following the TDL. 

He was then shipped off to the wasteland that was the post-Harden Rockets. There he played meaningless basketball for 2 years. Did he grow up at all during that time? No. 3 months after he was traded he violated the NBA's code of conduct by going to a strip club with teammate Sterling Brown (former Mav legend) where they both were involved in an assault. 

His 2nd year with HOU, head coach Stephen Silas got on Porter Jr. at halftime for his poor effort in the first half. KPJ responded by losing his temper at both Silas and assistant coach John Lucas where he threw an object at Lucas and had to be separated from them. He then left the game and stadium entirely despite there being an entire half of the game left.  

Finally his last year in Houston, he gets hit with felony assault and domestic violence charges and that was that. I understand his girlfriend is now walking back the allegations. Of the 3 charges he was hit with originally, one has been dismissed, while 2 others (one still being a felony) are still in place. Its not like this was some isolated event. 

And we're supposed to assume and expect KPJ to be mature about playing a minor bench role?


Sources:
https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-usc-star-kev...the%20time.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/3075...round-pick
https://nypost.com/2022/01/02/rockets-ke...er-blowup/
https://www.nba.com/news/kevin-porter-jr...nce-arrest
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/one-ch...-jr-s-case

I stand very corrected.  Thanks, Sleep