MPJ was right.
Full disclosure: There are a lot of things the Grading The Week staff will miss about life in the Mile High City without Michael Porter Jr. The hot streaks. The rebounding. The big heart off the court.
But when it comes to the Nuggets’ former foundational wing forward, we might miss his candor the most.
For better or worse, MPJ called it — and calls it — like he sees it.
Some of his truths are a little less, shall we say, politically correct than others, granted. But Mike is Mike. Take him or leave him.
In August, MPJ left us with something to ponder. Something deep. Only at the time, we didn’t know just how deep it was.
“Think about it,” Porter said in an appearance on the ‘One Night With Steiny’ podcast about six weeks ago. “If you could get all your homies rich by telling them, ‘Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game. I’m going to act like I’ve got an injury, and I’m going to sit out. I’m going to come out after three minutes.’ And they all get a little bag because you did it one game …
“That is so not OK. But some people probably think like that. They come from nothing, and all their homies have nothing.”
It’s not OK. At all. But it makes for a positively chilling — and prescient — read after the FBI indictments levied against Denver icon Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard Damon Jones earlier this week.
MPJ’s betting warning — B
MPJ warned the podcast audience, and us, that more gambling-related stories were coming out of the NBA’s inner circle.
The former Nugget has already lived through one of the bigger league scandals at a personal level. His younger brother Johntay was banned from the league for life in 2024 for admitting that he removed himself from two games in order to help those who had taken the “under” on his statistics.
“The enjoyment of the game isn’t for the game anymore,” MPJ said. “It’s so that people can make money. In reality, way more people are losing money than making money.”
To wit: MPJ’s brother reportedly was taking himself out in order to make some cash back to cover prior gambling debts.
It’s a tale, a sad one, as old as Eddie Cicotte, Art Schlichter and Pete Rose.
Only the landscape has changed. Leagues that eschewed sports betting companies are now business partners with them. DraftKings has a deal with the NBA. Late last month, FanDuel became the “exclusive odds provider of the NBA and WNBA” games on Amazon Prime.
Once the Supreme Court opened the door for legalized sports betting in the United States in 2018, so many horses flew out of so many barns it might be too late to build fences — metaphorical or otherwise.
Thursday’s news might only be the tip of the iceberg, Porter inferred. And, even more chillingly, not just in the NBA.
“It’s bad,” MPJ said. “And it’s only going to get worse.”
He’s probably right about that, too. More’s the pity.
Avs’ Quebec throwbacks — A
On a sunnier note, Team GTW’s checking account is probably about to get a bit lighter. Our resident puck-heads have always had a sweet spot for the old World Hockey Association and its myriad of ghosts. (RIP, Denver Spurs. You, too, Michigan Stags. And Indianapolis Racers. And Cincinnati Stingers.)
So, yeah. Nordiques throwbacks? Sign us up. Fleur-de-lis forever, baby.