COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– USA Basketball’s U 18 Tournament of the Americas team has long been a launching pad for future college stars and NBA lottery picks.
Michael Porter Jr. should be used to this kind of high stakes competition by now. The exciting flying 6-9 senior forward, who could be the best prospect in the Class of 2017 and is one of the biggest stars of this elite youth development team that will play in Chile at the end of next month, faces it every day, having grown up in the first family of basketball in Columbia, Mo.
Porter Jr., who averaged 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists for Father Tolton Catholic High, who won the 2016 Missouri Class 3 state championship. He scored 31 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in a dramatic 62-60 victory over Barstow at the University of Missouri Arena. “That was the biggest moment of my life,” Porter said. “Every kid dreams of winning a state championship. ”Twelve thousand people. Came down to the wire. I got some of my best friends on that team. It was crazy.”
Porter was one of just two underclassmen on USA Today’s All American team and was a shining star this month in the most loaded youth development camp in USA Basketball history here at the Olympic Training Center.
A large part of his success comes from the strong support he gets from his parents.
His father Michael Sr. is 6-4 and played for the University of New Orleans and Athletes in Action. His mother, the former Lisa Becker, is 6-4 and averaged 54 points a game in six on six play her senior year in the state of Iowa and started four years at the University Iowa and with USA Basketball in the 1985 Jones Cup. Then there are Porter’s seven brothers and sisters.
Lisa is the sister of Missouri women’s basketball coach Robin Pingleton. Michael Sr. just left an assistant’s position on Pingleton’s staff for a job as a men’s assistant at the University of Washington with close friend Lorenzo Romar, who happens to be Mike Jr’s Godfather. Then, there are Porter Jr.’s seven brothers and sisters. 6-3 Bri, 20, and 6-4 Cierra, 19, led Rock Bridge girls to three straight Missouri state titles and are members of the Missouri woman’s team. Michael and his 16 year brother, Jontay, a 6-9 sophomore who is expected to grow to seven-feet tall and and has already committed to play for Washington. He scored double figures in Tolton’s state championship game.
The four youngest children– Coban,14; Jevon, 11; Izaak 9; and Jayda. 6– all play basketball too. “Growing up in a basketball family, you’re never bored,” Porter said.
Michael Sr. handles the basketball side. Lisa handles the responsibilities at home. All of the children have been home schooled through eighth grade by Lisa, who earned her MBA and worked as a financial analyst before deciding to stay home after her first daughter Bri was born. She has integrated her lesson plans with a strong belief in Christianity. She has all of her children, including Michael Jr., on a vegetarian diet.
In order to Lisa also purchased a snow cone stand in Columbia and made the kids work three hour shifts every night in the summer to teach them responsibility and give them a break from their basketball regiment and provide balance in their lives. .
Growing up, Michael Jr.– who has a 4.0 GPA– was always hanging around the Missouri campus, playing pick up games in the Tigers workout facility. Missouri was initially considered the leader in the recruiting sweepstakes. But after his dad accepted a new job halfway across the country, his recruiting has become wide open.
It will be hard leaving his friends. “Ending the school year with a state title was awesome,” Porter said. “When I broke the news to my coach that I was leaving it was all love. I told him, ‘At least we went out with the title.”’
Porter’s list of five finalists include Washington, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia and Oklahoma. He chose them over Duke, Kentucky and Kansas. He and the family, with the exception of Bri and Cierra who will remain at Missouri, will all move to Seattle where Michael will choose between one of three high schools– Seattle Academy, Rosendale and O’Dea– and play with two of his brothers– Jontay, who has already committed to Washington– and Coban.
Wherever he goes, his team will be the automatic favorite to win the Washington state high school championship.
Michael Porter Jr. has been playing basketball since age four. “My dad would take me out into the backyard and we’d do these drills every night,” he said. “There was always kids outside playing. These days, I usually end up playing one on one against my brother, Jontay. A lot of times we don’t talk after the games. It’s that competitive.”
Michael experienced success at an early age. He played with Gary Trent Jr. from USA Basketball’s U 17 team on a fifth grade AAU national championship team when his family lived in Indiana. Porter has played for MOKAN Elite, an dominant Nike EBYL team, and has emerged into the most developed offensive player in his class. He handles the ball like a guard, can make deep threes and uses his length and athleticism to blow by defenders and finish at the rim. He relentlessly attacks the offensive glass.
He gained national publicity as a sophomore during a Christmas tournament in Jefferson City. Against Raytown South, Porter zoomed down the court, elevated from a step inside the free throw line and slammed home a gravity ignoring dunk over an unfortunate defender. The dunk was so powerful it wound up as one of ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Year and attracted 18.2 million views.
His reputation should only blow up with the U 18 team, which is filled with future stars. Aside from Porter, 6-7 Michigan State recruit Miles Bridges, 6-10 Texas recruit Jarrett Allen, 7-0 Mohammad Bamba from Westtown, Pa. School, 6-5 Washington recruit Mikelle Fultz and 6-5 guard Hamidou Diallo of Putnam.
There’s a reason his nickname is “Baby Kevin Durant.”
