{"id":83846,"date":"2024-06-30T20:08:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T00:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=83846"},"modified":"2024-06-30T20:08:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T00:08:37","slug":"clippers-sign-former-first-round-pick-kevin-porter-jr-fall-from-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/30\/clippers-sign-former-first-round-pick-kevin-porter-jr-fall-from-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers Sign Former First-Round Pick After Fall From Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Day 1 of NBA Free Agency, the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porteke02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Porter Jr.<\/a> to a two-year deal, per The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Porter previously reached a plea agreement of a third-degree reckless assault misdemeanor in January. He is in the process of completing a court-ordered program, and once completed his plea will move to not-guilty with no criminal record. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bJCTMQmeEA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/bJCTMQmeEA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1807553510558302474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Porter, who&#8217;s represented by Sam Permut of Roc Nation Sports, plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment charges in January. These charges stem from a September incident in which he was accused of striking his ex-girlfriend &#8211;WNBA veteran Kysre Gondrezick &#8211;in the face and strangling her. Gondrezick would later claim that she never accused Porter of domestic violence. Nonetheless, the New York Post reports that <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/09\/12\/houston-rockets-kevin-porter-jr-allegedly-fractured-girlfriends-vertebrae-in-nyc-hotel-beating\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the assault only stopped<\/a> once she &#8220;fled the room and was found bloodied and bruised by hotel employees in the hall.&#8221; Gondrezick also suffered fractured vertebrae in her neck.<\/p>\n<h2>Clippers Sign Kevin Porter Jr. After Fall From Grace<\/h2>\n<p>As punishment for his crimes, Porter was subject to a limited restraining order and a 26-week counseling program. By taking the plea deal, Porter was able to avoid incarceration. He&#8217;ll also be able to remove his plea to reckless assault, though he&#8217;ll still be guilty of harassment. If this seems like a light punishment, it is. Unfortunately for domestic violence victims, this is all too common, especially for the rich and famous.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, when people are deserving of second chances, it usually requires them to show contrition. Porter hasn&#8217;t gone on an apology tour or publicly donated to organizations created to empower and protect women. However, for what it&#8217;s worth, he&#8217;s stayed out of the spotlight rather than acting innocent or above the allegations. He&#8217;s also completing his court-ordered counseling. That won&#8217;t be enough for many people, but it was enough for the Clippers. Notably, L.A. signed Josh Primo less than a year after he was accused of indecent exposure.<\/p>\n<h3>Kevin Porter Jr.&#8217;s On-Court Fit<\/h3>\n<p>Looking at Porter&#8217;s time on the court rather than in it, one can see why a number of teams were interested in him.<\/p>\n<p>His age (24) is one factor, as he&#8217;s a former first-round pick who has yet to hit his prime. Yet, he&#8217;s also a skilled guard with the ability to impact the game in myriad ways. As a scorer, Porter&#8217;s ball-handling and athleticism allow him to pry his way into the paint at will. He isn&#8217;t the most accurate jump shooter but his touch allows him to be a three-level scorer. He&#8217;s an adept playmaker, with the ability to be a primary or secondary facilitator due his passing ability and court vision. Defensively, he&#8217;s capable of guarding 1-3 due to his physical tools.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear what role he&#8217;ll have with L.A. next season. However, with star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> potentially on the move after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/29\/report-6x-all-nba-selection-officially-becomes-free-agent-paul-george-los-angeles-clippers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">opting for free agency<\/a>, it might be a significant one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Day 1 of NBA Free Agency, the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to sign Kevin Porter Jr. to a two-year deal, per The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania. Porter previously reached a plea agreement of a third-degree reckless assault misdemeanor in January. He is in the process of completing a court-ordered program, and once completed his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":83852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,31,62],"tags":[1958,297,1632],"class_list":["post-83846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-kevin-porter-jr","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-wnba"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}