Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. -- brother of the banished Jontay Porter -- recently opened up about the dangers of sports betting.
Porter Jr. said that gambling is one of many addictions that create afflictions in everyone, including professional athletes like his brother.
Key Takeaways
- Porter Jr.’s brother, Jontay, was banned from the NBA for life for illegal sports betting in 2024.
- Porter Jr. said that athletes often face death threats regardless of how they perform.
- The opportunities for athletes to sacrifice their morals are an ever-present danger.
Porter Jr., while speaking on the One Night With Steiny podcast, said that sports betting puts professional athletes in a lose-lose situation in which they will always receive abuse, regardless of how they perform.
“The whole sports gambling thing is only going to get worse, and we really do get death threats,” said Porter Jr. “You can’t win anymore because if I do too good I’m messing with people who bet on the under, and if they bet on my over… so you’re always messing up some people’s money.”
He also highlighted the temptations for athletes to sacrifice their morals, knowing there is the potential for huge money to be made.
While he mentioned his struggles with women and others’ issues with alcohol, he said that the desire for money is greatly increased with the opportunities that exist in the era of sports betting.
“Think about if you can get all your homies rich by telling them, ‘Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game, I’m gonna act like I got an injury. I’m gonna come out after three minutes,’” Porter Jr. said. “They all get a little bag because you did it in one game.”
“That is not okay, but some people probably think like that; they come from nothing, and all their homies have nothing. And they’re like, 'Bro, if I come out of this game after three minutes and y’all all get my under, we’re all getting a little bag.’”
Michael Porter Jr. on sports betting
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) August 12, 2025
“Think about it if you can get all your homies rich by telling yo bet 10K on my under..this one game imma act like I got an injury and they all get a lil bag… some people come from nothing & they think like that.”
(Via @onenightsteiny) pic.twitter.com/rxIaNoW19w
Shining a light on the Jontay scandal
Whether he meant to or not, Porter Jr. almost perfectly described the scenario that got his brother permanently banned from the NBA.
Jontay, Michael’s younger brother, was a two-way player for the Toronto Raptors. He was found to have purposefully limited his participation in two games, both times exiting early in the contests with ailments that weren’t disclosed in the pre-game report.
An investigation revealed that the younger Porter conspired with known sports bettors and had planned to leave the games unexpectedly to help them cash the under on his player props. He also placed bets on NBA games using an associate’s online betting account.
The NBA banned Porter on April 17, 2024. He was the first player in the modern era to receive this punishment.
Malik Beasley and Terry Rozier under investigation
On top of discussing his brother’s case, the elder Porter, a 2023 NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets, discussed the ongoing cases involving Malik Beasley and Terry Rozier.
Beasley, a free agent whose supposed three-year, $42 million extension with the Detroit Pistons was pulled after news broke of an investigation, is firmly under the microscope. He’s drawn the interest of the U.S. District Attorney’s office for alleged involvement in gambling and prop bets following a series of financial scandals off the court.
Rozier became a person of interest months ago, but that was taken to a new level last month when it was revealed that a professional gambler did not lose a single wager involving Rozier’s props.
According to ESPN’s David Purdum, the bettor placed 30 bets worth $13,579 in a 46-minute window and walked away with $13,017.70 in winnings.
Neither Beasley nor Rozier has been charged with any wrongdoing, though both investigations remain open.
