Following the recent charges against Kevin Porter Jr., which include felony assault and strangulation, numerous articles and social media posts have emerged, shedding light on Porter’s troubled past.
News of Porter’s arrest began circulating online on Monday. The promising NBA talent stands accused of assaulting his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Rae Gondrezick. Reports indicate that he subjected her to a severe beating, employing closed, forceful punches, and strangulated her to such an extent that her neck vertebrae suffered fractures.
According to reports, Gondrezick locked him out of their room for returning home so late, and this enraged Porter. Soon after he gained access to the room through hotel security, he assaulted her, causing her to run out of the room with a bloody face.
This news shocked and disgusted a lot of readers.
Shocked, as they never had an inkling about his violent history. And disgusted at how he could ever do that to his partner.
Some, however, remained unmoved by the news, as it appears Porter was never particularly concerned with concealing this ugly nature of his. There were signs all along.
Kevin Porter Jr’s prior problems
Porter’s prior arrest, although not on similar charges, involved a different incident. In 2020, he was involved in a single-car accident, and subsequent investigations revealed that he had been driving without a valid license. Additionally, he was apprehended with both marijuana and a firearm in his possession during the same episode. These three serious offenses all occurred on a single occasion, which might lead one to assume that he would face imprisonment. However, the charges were subsequently dismissed.
In 2021, news of the Cavaliers wanting to trade him off also spread. He had a locker outburst because of something everyone would consider insignificant. But not to him, apparently. His locker was moved for a new player, Taurean Prince, and he did not take this well. Porter escalated the situation by shouting and brandishing food, leading to an altercation with Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Kobry Altman.
This resulted in his trade-off to his current team, the Houston Rockets.
Refusing to learn his lessons, Porter had a locker room outburst and altercation with the Rockets’ head coach again. And he got a brief suspension and a $50,000 fine this time.
Porter also displayed this nature of his when he was out in a club with the Rockets team sometime in 2021–22. He was reported to have destroyed the laptop of a Houston DJ, all because he didn’t like the music he was playing. And as if destroying the laptop wasn’t enough, he went on a violent outburst. Thankfully, his members were there to stop him. He was dragged out of the club in disgrace.
In 2020, he was accused of hitting a woman in Cleveland’s downtown area. It was reported that he hit the woman with his fists and grabbed her by the hair.
But, again, this didn’t earn him a ticket to jail.
Only when we see his girlfriend with a laceration above her eye, a broken neck, and a bloody face do we truly register that Porter shouldn’t be able to get away with this anymore.
With his latest arrest, the public now hopes that Porter will be punished for real this time, not just with a simple trade to another team or an NBA suspension or ban, but really sent to prison and stay there for a long time for his crimes.
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