Michael Porter Jr. justifies his brother's illegal bets: "My vice has always been women"
Jontay was banned for life by the NBA for telling his friends to bet money on the games he was playing in
The lifetime ban of Jontay Porter from the NBA in 2024, after it was discovered that he collaborated with bettors to manipulate "prop bets", not only marked his career definitively. It also brought his older brother, Michael Porter Jr., NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets in 2023, into the spotlight. Now, the forward has once again drawn attention with statements that have left no one indifferent.
Porter Jr. admitted that he can understand why a player would engage in something illegal like what his brother did. "Think about this: if you can make all your friends rich by telling them, 'Hey, bet $10,000 on my under in this game, I'm going to fake an injury and leave after three minutes.' They make money because you did it once. That's very wrong, but that’s how some people think. They come from nothing. All their friends come from nothing," he explained.
The player even added that Jontay "wasn’t blessed with a lot of money because maybe God knew he wouldn’t be able to handle that temptation." He also acknowledged that everyone has different weaknesses: "My brother struggled with gambling. My vice has always been women."
The current situation of both
Beyond the personal aspect, Porter Jr. stated that his statements aim to expose the risks that the growth of sports betting can pose to the integrity of the game. "All this sports betting stuff... man, it's bad and it's only going to get worse. We really received death threats," he affirmed.
Meanwhile, Jontay's situation is still in the courts. After pleading guilty to conspiracy to electronic fraud in July 2024, he faces up to four years in prison and hefty fines. His sentencing, originally set for May of this year, was postponed to December 10.
In the sports realm, Michael Porter Jr. is also going through a significant career change. This summer, he left Denver after being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in the deal that sent Cameron Johnson to Colorado.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Michael Porter Jr. ¿justifica? las apuestas ilegales de su hermano: "Mi vicio siempre han sido las mujeres"
