The absolute main player of a team, because of the disagreement with the assistant coach at halftime, and then a big fight, and then angrily left the stadium and directly withdrew from the game. Such a scene may be easier to understand if it occurs in the student arena, but in the professional arena of the NBA, there is actually such a scene. This is the protagonist of today's story, Rockets player Kevin Potter Jr.
A year ago, at the end of January 2021, the Rockets traded Kevin Porter Jr. from the Cavaliers with a second-round draft pick protected by a top 55. A few months later, in a game against the Bucks, Porter Jr. scored 50 points and 11 assists in a single game, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to play "50 points + 10 assists" in a single game.
At that time, public opinion praised the rocket's new management for "discerning britain" and pushed Porter Jr. to the position of the rocket's "new cornerstone". After all, the previous player who wore a Rockets jersey to play similar statistics was Harden 'Hardstone's". Even though Houston welcomed the star Jaylen Green last summer, Porter Jr.'s position on the team has not wavered, and he is regarded as a twin star who can sit on an equal footing with Green. Considering that Porter Jr. is only the 30th rookie in the first round of 2019, he definitely has a foothold in the Rockets.
Since the start of the season, Porter Jr., like the Rockets, has had his performance fluctuating. But in the few games the team won back-to-back games in late November and December, Porter Jr. played well. Unfortunately, in early December, Porter Jr. suddenly injured his thigh, and a break was more than 20 days, until the end of December with a game with the Lakers, he returned from injury. Back in the first game, Porter Jr. scored 22 points and 9 assists in a single game, almost helping the team to overturn the Lakers.
But who would have thought that the good days were only a few days later, and little Potter suddenly came out with a very bad negative news. On January 1, local time, the rocket welcomed the Denver Nuggets on the first day of the new year. On the one hand, there is a gap in strength with the opponent, on the other hand, the attitude of the Rockets' players in this game is indeed somewhat problematic, and by the end of the half, the Rockets have fallen behind by a score of 55-77. In particular, in the second quarter of the game, the Rockets defense line collapsed completely, losing 47 points in a single quarter.
Before returning to the locker room, Rockets veteran assistant coach John Lucas spoke to Porter Jr. from the benchside. Lucas's words pointed to some of Porter Jr.'s problems in the first half, notably a few mistakes on the defensive end. But Porter Jr. believes that this is assistant coach Lucas deliberately targeting him, and Porter, who has lost his cool, began to become extremely angry on the sidelines and began to argue with Lucas. According to sources, the argument between the two continued from the sidelines to the locker room at halftime. Porter Jr. threw something at the coach and tangled with Lucas until the rest of the team intervened to separate the two.
"We had a heated debate at the time," rocket coach Silas said in a post-game interview, referring to the situation, "and I've made it clear that the players have to play as hard as they can on the court." However, I am not satisfied with the level of effort of the players. ”
It was not difficult to hear in the discourse that Silas was clearly on the side of his assistant Lucas. John Lucas, as an NBA veteran coach, has always had a very good reputation in the coaching circle, and many players have praised him. The Rockets selected a new manager last season, and Lucas was also a popular candidate. So Silas is reasonable and has to "stand aside" Lucas.
Before the start of the second half of the game with the Nuggets, the Rockets officially announced that Porter Jr. was suspicious of playing in the second half of the game because of the discomfort of his left thigh. Considering that Porter Jr. did take a few games off because of a thigh contusion, the reason for this absence is also very reasonable. However, according to sources inside the team, Porter Jr.'s thighs are fine at all, and he can't play in the second half because after a fight with Lucas, he left the locker room and drove out of the Toyota Center in his car.
As soon as this news came out, it immediately detonated the Network. Many people discussed the details of this incident, but many people put on a "long-anticipated" attitude.
That's a return to the rocket and cavaliers' deal a year ago. Why did the Rockets take a draft pick in this round and get Porter Jr., who can cut 50 points? Is it true that knights don't know goods? Of course not, because in the Cavaliers' two seasons, Porter Jr. has made more than one off-court incident, causing a miasma in the team's locker room.
First of all, in November 2019, Porter Jr. deliberately ran behind a referee when he ran back to his bench in a cavalier-loner match, and whether unintentionally or deliberately, he bumped into the referee's shoulder. The league officially determined that Porter Jr.'s behavior was "inappropriate physical contact with the referee", and then punished him with a ban.
Then, just before the start of the 2020-21 season, Porter Jr.'s vehicle rolled over while driving, only to find that Porter Jr. had a pistol in his car and a small amount of marijuana. So Porter Jr. was sued for his extraordinary possession of a gun and missed a few games at the beginning of the new season.
The event that really made the knight intolerable happened on January 18, 2021. At the time, the Cavaliers got Jarrett Allen and Torion Prince from the Nets in the big four-way deal involving James Harden. The Cavaliers' staff adjusted the locker room, moving Porter Jr.'s locker to the side and leaving his old locker to the new Prince. Little Porter, who had just returned to the team at the time, was very dissatisfied with the team's move, and went directly to the office of the team management and had a big fight with the staff.
Immediately after this incident, the Knights announced that they would begin to seek a plan to trade Porter Jr., and if the deal did not go out, they would immediately lay him off. "We made this decision to better develop the culture and environment of the team," Cavaliers general manager Kobe Altman said at the time, "and we felt that such a move was a strong decision for everyone." ”
Just 3 days after the Cavaliers made this decision, the Rockets moved, and then there was the case at the beginning of the article where the Rockets traded Porter with a second-round draft pick. Little Porter, who came to Houston, tightened his temper, whether it was when playing in the Rockets' development league team, or later returning to the Rockets, he has always performed well, and once made the Rockets' management and fans feel that this bottoming was a success. But it's only been less than a year since he joined the Rockets, and Porter Jr. seems to be back to his former form.
An important reason for the Cavaliers when deciding to send Porter Jr. was that they didn't want him to affect the team's environment and culture. Judging from the current situation of the Rockets, Porter Jr. seems to have also begun to cause negative effects on this team.
It is still the game between the Rockets and the Nuggets, the second half of the game between the two sides, in addition to Porter Jr., the Rockets' interior main force and the team's scoring champion this season, Christian Wood, also did not play. Moreover, Wood, who has been playing as a starter, only played as a substitute for 8 minutes in the first half of this game, did not score in 4 shots and did not score, and contributed only 1 rebound.
After the game, reporters naturally asked about Wood. But Silas didn't explain too much this time, just used the word "coach's decision" as the answer to the question. According to U.S. media reports, Wood did not start in the first half because he was late when he arrived at the stadium and missed the pre-game coronavirus testing required by the league. This lack of organized, disciplined behavior, combined with inefficient performance in the first half, may be the reason why the Rockets coaching staff did not let Wood play in the second half.
At present, the Rockets have only revealed that they will punish Porter Jr. and Wood Jr. within the team, but the specific measures have not been disclosed. But the rockets, which had just improved a bit, were disturbed by this incident, and it was not known whether they would slow down their reconstruction process. And Porter Jr., a "time bomb" player, stays in the locker room, and the future of the Rockets must always be worried.