Implications of Kevin Porter Jr.’s assault arrest

Monday’s abbreviated episode features reaction from Ben DuBose to the news of Kevin Porter Jr.’s arrest in New York for an alleged domestic assault and strangulation, including why his time with the Rockets is likely over and what it means for the franchise moving forward.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Ben Dubo's here, editor of USAToday's Rockets Wire and contributor to Sports Talk
seven ninety, the official flagship radiostation of the team. I'm the host
of this podcast, The Logger Line, served to you courtesy of Clutch to
the logger of Carbock Brewing, theirbeer developed in collaboration with your Houston Rockets.
So today's show on this Monday,September eleventh, is going to be

(00:22):
relatively quick and simple, no intromusic, because I'm not trying to hype
you guys. This is a verysad day for everyone around the Houston Rockets,
and I feel compelled to at leastaddress the elephant in the room regarding
Kevin Porter Jr. But I don'twant to talk about it too much because
this is going to take a littlebit of time to play out, and
we've got plenty of time ahead totalk about the implications in terms of basketball,

(00:45):
the franchise, what the path forwardis. We can do that more.
There's still three weeks to go untiltraining camp even starts, so we'll
have more episodes at length. I'llbring in Paulo Alves, my co host,
for his perspective. We'll do allof that as the days and weeks
progress. Today, I just wantto offer a little bit of initial reaction

(01:06):
and context to what happened, andI'll begin by simply reading from Jonathan Fagan
of the Houston Chronicle his story.He spoke to someone with the New York
Police Department and this is what hewrote in the Houston Chronicle. Rockets guard
Kevin Porter Jr. Was arrested incharge Monday with assault and strangulation in New

(01:26):
York. An NYPD spokesperson said Porter, twenty three years old, was placed
in custody on the scene. Policeresponded to a nine one one call from
a New York hotel at six fortyfive am. Upon arrival, officers were
informed a twenty six year old femalesustained a laceration to the right side of
her face and was complaining about painto her neck. The spokesperson said.
A preliminary investigation on scene determined thata known individual struck her multiple times upon

(01:51):
her body and placed his hands aroundher neck. The woman, twenty six,
was taken to an area hospital forevaluation. Rockets journal manager Rafelstone line
to comment on the situation. Weare in the process of gathering more information
surrounding the matter involving Kevin Porter Junior. A Rocket spokesperson said, we have
no further comment at this time.So, first and foremost, this is

(02:14):
incredibly sad. Domestic violence is unacceptable. If you want more information about the
victim, that's out there, Butthe NYPD did not mention specifics regarding her
identity in the statement, so I'mgoing to steer away from that as well.
Again, Google is your friend.If you want to learn more,
you certainly can, But I'm justgoing to talk about the Kevin Porter Junior
angle and a small bit about whatthat means for the Rockets moving forward.

(02:36):
My guess is that Kevin has playedhis last game with the team. Now
Jonathan has a little bit of informationabout how this could be handled within the
NBA. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which took effect on July first,
to stipulates that a player does notnecessarily have to be convicted of a crime
to be in violation of the league'sdomestic violence policy. Commissioner Adam Silver can

(02:58):
choose to put a player on paidadminister leave while the league investigates, and
based on the findings, he hasthe authority to find suspend or dismiss and
disqualify a player from any further associationwith the NBA and its team's. Physical
assault or battery, sexual assault,stalking, harassment, and other forms of
physical or psychological abuse all fall underthe umbrella of the NBA's domestic violence Policy.

(03:20):
NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said that theNBA is aware of the reports regarding
Kevin Porter, and the league officesin contact with the Rockets and in the
process of gathering more information. Now, I want to be clear, Kevin
Porter Jr. Who was traded tothe Rockets in January twenty twenty one,
he's played the last three seasons withthe team. He absolutely deserves due process

(03:44):
in a court of law, andhe's going to get it. That's the
American criminal justice system. However,the standard for Kevin in a court of
law is different than the standard thata private business or institution, be at
the or the NBA has for playingwithin the lines. It's a privilege,

(04:05):
not a right. And so evenif we hear more information, it gets
murkier with regards to exactly what wenton in that hotel room and the specifics
of the incident. Whatever it takesto convict him in a court of law
or potentially put him behind bars,and some of that may depend on,

(04:28):
of course, how the victim wantsto proceed and how aggressively she wants to
handle the situation. Whatever happens thereis not necessarily correlated with what the Rockets
and the NBA do. Again,playing in the league and making an enormous
amount of money, he's currently guaranteednearly sixteen million dollars for next season,
and at the end of this comingyear there's an option for the next two

(04:51):
years. But the NBA actually,under the domestic violence policy, has the
right to avoid the contract entirely.We'll get into that. I do think
that's at least possib but the leaguewill have to go through a bit of
an investigation first. As they mentioned, all parties want to get more information
on this. I think it's importantto underscore at the outset that the standard
to play for an NBA team isdifferent than the standard to avoid jail.

(05:16):
Sometimes, especially in social media,it feels like those get overlapped far too
easily, even if the actual legalproceedings don't play out a certain way.
The question of whether it's appropriate forhim to play for the Rockets or another
NBA team, in my opinion,is entirely separate. Those two should not

(05:38):
be conflated as one and the same. Now that doesn't mean that you don't
talk to him and get his sideof the story. Of course you should.
But in this case, since itappears there's also physical evidence, you
don't want to assume, but itseems pretty damning at this point in time,
and my guess is that he's playedhis final game with the Rockets and

(06:00):
perhaps in the entire NBA, becausethis is simply unacceptable and it would be
unacceptable behavior no matter who it is, let's make clear. But in the
case of Kevin Porter Jr. Andthe baggage that led to him joining the
Rockets in the first place, Ithink it's all the more applicable to this
particular situation and why he's not goingto get another chance. Look, he

(06:24):
was the number thirty overall draft pickin twenty nineteen despite having talent far above
that. In large part that's becausehe had off the court issues and he
was suspended at USC, his collegeteam then in Cleveland. He played one
year with the Cavaliers, showed alot of promise at times, and he

(06:45):
was traded to the Rockets for basicallynothing after just one season, with the
Cavaliers giving up on a first rounddraft pick and pulling the plug entirely,
basically giving him away because of theissues that they had witnessed in the locker
room. Also, off the court, there was an allegation that he punched
a woman in the face during histime in Cleveland, even if that didn't

(07:08):
proceed in a court of law.Again, when we're talking about playing for
an NBA team, the standards area bit different, and Cleveland decided it
wanted to move on all together andcompletely part ways. So the Rockets brought
him on as basically a lottery ticket, is the way I would put it.

(07:30):
They knew the anger issues were real. That's something I've heard for two
plus years from everyone I've spoken toin the organization. He's been trying to
work on them, but the underlyingissues are very real. There were a
few incidents from time to time,most notably January first of twenty twenty two,
when he got so upset at halftimeof the Rockets Nuggets New Year's Day

(07:50):
game that he literally left the arenaand drove home. The Rockets suspended him
for a game afterward. There's beena few little things like that, but
nothing at least to my knowledge,that rose anywhere near the level of what
happened Sunday night and Monday morning.This is a new level, and it's
unacceptable behavior regardless, but it's especiallyunacceptable behavior when everyone knows you're basically on

(08:15):
his zero tolerance policy. At onepoint, Kevin Porter Jr. Said they
saved my life, referring to theRockets because he was in such a dark
place after what happened in Cleveland.He knew the severity of everything that's followed
him in the past. They hadhim work with John Lucas, who's helped

(08:35):
a lot of troubled athletes over theyears. It's not like Kevin Porter Jr.
Was unaware of this being a serioussituation for him, and I do
think that he worked on it.However, this was a clear relapse,
and now I think we're to thepoint of no return. And I think,
again, domestic violence is unacceptable.It should be condemned in all forms.

(08:56):
It should not be tolerated, andI think it would be true no
matter who the player is, butit's especially true when the player does have
that baggage. It's something that he'sbeen working on. And if you've given
second chances, if you've tried toreform, and he still does this again,
you can't one hundred percent of soonyou do talk to him and at

(09:18):
least try to get a better understandingof exactly what happened. But unless there's
real evidence that somehow the police versionof events is inaccurate or misleading, and
I find that extraordinarily hard to believe, then it's hard to see how this
ends in any other way other thanKevin Porter Jr. And the Rockets parting
ways now. As far as whenand how that happens, I think it's

(09:43):
important to note that the NBA hasjurisdiction here. So even if the Rockets
wanted to cut him for the immediatepr boost to put out statements saying Kevin
Porter Junior will never play for theRockets again, that's not how it works
under the new CBA. This wasnegotiated between the league and the players union.
The league has its own investigators thatare going to look into this and

(10:05):
come to their findings, and theRockets have to wait for that process to
play out. That's how it wasnegotiated during CBA talks. Domestic violences an
important issue. We've seen it happenwith Miles Bridges, and initially the team
is going to have to give deferenceto what happens in the league office.
Now, if the league office doesnot avoid the contract, then there may

(10:28):
come a point that the Rockets haveto make that decision themselves, and ultimately
I think they would. Again,there's baggage with KPJ and beyond that because
his contract is so year to year. In large part because of that baggage,
that's how the Rockets were able toget a contract that had so many
team options, because again that historydictates that you don't want to commit that
much money to him long term,because even if you don't want it to

(10:52):
happen, something like this could happen. It's not entirely unforeseeable. And so
the Rockets protected themselves. They hadthe leverage to do so. It's quite
frankly, the same reason why theyacquired him so cheaply in the first place,
because Cleveland saw these incidents and throughtheir hands up and said we can't
deal with this anymore. So onsome level, the Rockets can't be completely
stunned, and even if the NBAdoesn't decide to avoid the contract, this

(11:16):
will be an interesting case study becauseI believe it's the first one under the
new CBA, which took effect onJuly first. The Rockets could then take
the additional step themselves, and becausethe contract is so year to year,
it's easier for them to potentially doso because it's not as if you're just
eating salary with regards to your futureoutlook. He's basically up after this year

(11:39):
anyway. If you cut him beforethe regular season opener, he's only owed
one million for the period beyond thiscoming season, and as far as this
coming season, the money's already spentin free agency. So really you can
get out of the Kevin Porter juniorbusiness pretty easily. And that's why I
ultimately expect the Rockets too. Isuppose, you know, you can make

(12:00):
an argument that, well, ifyou just keep him and put him,
you know, regardless of whether theleague investigation is wrapped up by training camp
or not. Even if it's not, my guess is the Rockets will keep
him away from the team and say, and maybe the league puts him under
paid administrative league as Jonathan Fagan alludedto during this process, but regardless,
since he's not going to be aroundfor the regular season, there's no point
having around his teammates in training campone way or another, whether he's caught

(12:20):
or not. My guess is thathe's away from the team during training camp,
whether he's officially under contract or not. And some will ask wouldn't you
just keep him on leave or suspendedwhatever you're gonna call it, through the
season and then at least use himas potential salary filler in trades because he's

(12:41):
fifteen million dollars. And say whatyou will about the ethics, there is
precedent for NBA teams taking a guywho's basically not an active player because of
or conduct but using them a salaryfiller and then cutting bait. Think of
Myers Leonard in twenty twenty one,who the Heat had away from the team

(13:01):
after the slur he used, andhe ended up being traded at the trade
deadline for salary reasons to make adeal work with the Thunder, and then
the Thunder just cut him. Isuppose that's a possibility, but again,
that would require months of sort ofwaiting around in terms of getting to a
point where you could actually get closerto the trade that lending use him.

(13:22):
I don't know the Rockets would wanthim around for that long. The severity
of this, of course, iseven worse than the slur, because in
this case we're talking about physical,domestic violence, strangulation. This is really,
really bad, and so I'd personallybe surprised if the Rockets tried to
keep him around just because theoretically youmight could use him as salary filler down

(13:43):
the line. My guess is theRockets want to let the league investigate,
and shortly after the league investigates,they'll cut ties. But even if the
NBA doesn't void the contract, theRockets can just release him themselves. I
don't think it's worth keeping around formonths upon months out of hope that maybe
you need him salary filler, especiallybecause quite frankly, I already have a
lot of salary filler Chock Landale andJeff Green. That's twenty million dollars right

(14:05):
there. And I'm trying to talktoo much about basketball, because again,
basketball is secondary. On a daylike today, I'm just talking about the
basketball and financial angles. Because thisis a podcast that covers the Rockets want
to underscore that the victim in thisincredibly sad situation, that is what is
most important. We're just talking aboutsome of the more trivial aspects how the
Rockets move forward, because that's whatthis podcast specializes in. That's our niche,

(14:28):
and so trying to provide a littlebit of initial guidance about where things
are going to go. But asof right now, even if the Rockets
wanted to cut him, I don'tbelieve they can. It's up to the
NBA once they step in, thatinvestigation takes precedence, they have jurisdiction,
and quite frankly, above all else, I'm sure some will say, why
do the Rockets care about the sixteenmillion dollars? Just cut the guy?

(14:52):
Actually, if you're that upset withKevin Porter Jr. And assuming this is
true, you should be why doyou want to give him sixteen million dollars
if you don't have to anything thatyou do with that money? If this
incident is true as everything appears,would be better than giving that to KPJ.
Anything you do with it, andperhaps you could end up donating it

(15:15):
to a domestic violence foundation. There'sso many different things you could do with
it. All of it is betterthan paying sixteen million dollars to a guy
who's not going to play and probablyisn't going to play in the NBA again
because he appears to have done somethingreally, really awful again pending investigation.
You let the NBA do what it'sgot to do. But if there's a

(15:35):
way that you can avoid the contractentirely and not even have to deal with
negotiating the terms of a split andpaying him, you know, the rest
of his contract this season, that'sideal on a number of levels. So
for starters, I think the NBA, you know, it's written into the
CBA they have to take jurisdiction onan issue this serious. Then it's their

(15:58):
business first, and beyond that,even if it wasn't required, which I
believe it is, it just makessense for the Rockets because if there's a
path for the NBA to just avoidthe contract, then you should absolutely be
open to taking that. And perhapsthat's what plays out again. There will
be more information, I'm sure thatgets released over the coming days and weeks.
This is just me reacting in theinitial hours after all of this became

(16:19):
public. A few other things thatI want to clarify. So this was
a bit of an awkward day forthe Rockets for everything to leak. Well,
it's never a good day, butthis was especially awkward because Houston had
its annual Hatriot Day. Each yearon or around September eleventh, they do

(16:40):
something honoring first responders in the Houstonarea. This year it was a luncheon
I believe at Toyota Center and rafelStone, GM of the Rockets, Scratch
and Sheer, president of the Rockets, were on seen and doing some media
interviews. Torry Easton was there aswell, helping out. The Rockets would
not have put these players out there, or executives for that matter, if

(17:00):
they had known this was coming.Trust me when I say that they were
every bit as shocked and disappointed asyou are. This caught them off guard
as well. Again, this allhappened within a matter of hours. The
incident itself, and I'm a onecall was six to eleven or six forty
five, excuse me. And thenyou had to get investigators out there,

(17:22):
take statements, review evidence. Youhad to arrest Kevin, book him,
charge him. There's video of himgoing into a police car, floating around
on Twitter. And then the Rocketsmedia availability. This luncheon started at eleven,
So no, I don't think theRockets new. It's just unfortunate timing
that they had a separate event today. They're still learning, so part of

(17:45):
the reason they haven't come down tooharshly when number one, the league has
jurisdiction. And secondly, they're stilltrying to find out. They were caught
as off guard by this as youwere. Again, this all played out
in real time, So I donot believe it's situation where they had some
prior warning and they were trying tobe you know, sort of clever in
I guess minimizing this, or Isaw some people pointing out that, you

(18:08):
know, it's good timing because Sundaywas the opener of the NFL season and
the Astros are home and winning alot of games, and so maybe it
gets No. No, no,no, there's no timing element to this.
There's no trying to sweep it underthe rog I feel confident in saying
the Rockets take this issue very veryseriously. It's just the timing is what
it is. This is when ithappened, and they're learning of it today

(18:30):
the same way we are. Andmy guess is that they make a clear
statement that this is absolutely unacceptable.It's not what they stand for, it's
not what any NBA organization would standfor, and I think it will be
dealt with appropriately. One last thingthat I want to clarify. I've seen
some trying to draw parallels between thisand Anthony Lamb, a player who was
under contract with the Rockets for acouple of seasons, who was accused of

(18:53):
rape when he was in college atthe University of Vermont. This is a
very a French situation than that,based on the arrest and the charges.
If we're talking and the fact thatit happened while Kevin was under contract with
the Rockets. It's not that theother incident isn't serious. It absolutely is.

(19:18):
But if we're talking years before,no arrest, no charges, and
the player strongly denies it, thenit does put the team in an awkward
spot. I'm not saying that youcan't make the argument that even the accusation
itself should be disqualifying from him playingin the NBA because it's a privilege and

(19:38):
the right. No, that's absolutelyfair, you can say that, But
in terms of comparing the two situations, again, no arrest, no charge.
The player denies it. Here he'sarrested, he's charged, there's physical
evidence. We'll see if he deniesit, but don't no, I don't
know how he can if there's thisevidence and people went out to the scene.

(19:59):
It's not to excuse the other.I'm simply saying that these are in
different buckets. And this happened whilehe was under contract with the Rockets,
who had worked with him so hardon his anger issues, on the baggage
that had plagued him in college atUSC and with the Cleveland Tabliers his first
NBA home. So the fact thatthis happened under the Rockets watch, after

(20:22):
they stood by him so many times, gave him the contract, did so
many things to try and help himtake the next step, not just as
a player, but as a person. This is a different level. And
that's not to say that you can'tor shouldn't be upset about the way they've
handled situations in the past. Youabsolutely can. All I'm saying is that
this situation is different. And assumingthat there's nothing stunning that gets released about

(20:45):
this beyond what is reported right now, then I assume the team will deal
with this relatively quickly, and it'sgoing to be a pretty easy decision for
them as far as the basketball sideof this, and I want to underscore
that, I understand this is trivial. What is going on with the victim

(21:07):
and the real life implications for everyoneinvolved is far more important. This is
simply digging into the weeds for ourRockets basketball podcast. Certainly, not having
Kevin around, assuming that's the outcome, it's going to hurt the Rockets a
little bit this season. He wasnot going to be the starting point guard
this side, and for a ventlead and Dylan Brooks in the offseason,
he probably wasn't going to start atall because of that, but he was

(21:30):
entering his fifth NBA year. Ata bare minimum. I know he was
a frequent debate topic in regards tois he a point guard or not?
Is he going to be efficient enough? Is he a good enough defender?
YadA YadA? At a bare minimum, he's a competent rotation player for a
Rockets team that is otherwise extremely youngand just went twenty two and sixty.
Not having him is going to hurtthis season, and so maybe it puts

(21:52):
the floor a little bit lower.But in the grand scheme, and now
you have a coach to trust inEmi Udoka, to sort of lead this
rebuild in its second phase. Idon't think it's all that much of a
needle mover in regards to the longterm, the actual championship blueprint, because

(22:17):
the way I think the Rockets lookat this, and really anyone with common
sense would look at it, KevinPorter Jr. Was always a lottery ticket.
There's a reason you got him forso cheap. There's a reason why
his contract had all that year toyear team optionality. He was a risk.
The anger management issues were and clearlyare very real. So in a

(22:41):
perfect world, would he have turnedit around. Sure, he's a very
talented player, but I don't thinkit's something they were counting on. This
is not like the same thing happeningwith one of your core six, one
of your blue chip prospects that you'rereally counting on. I do think it
makes Jalen Green in particular, sinceKevin Porter Jr. Was someone of a

(23:02):
very similar archetype. It makes Jalen'sdevelopment all the more important. But in
terms of the significance, again,Kevin Porter Jr. If he worked out
and now he's clearly not was alwayssomething analogous to the cherry on top of
the Sunday. He was not thefoundation. There was far too much of
a risk. There was always apossibility, and the Rockets knew That's why
to negotiated all these team options inthe contract. There was always possibility this

(23:25):
could happen. So while it's sadand it's unfortunate, I do not think
it changes the long term trajectory allthat much. The long term growth of
this rebuild and what they hope getsthem back to a championship level. It's
the core six, these high firstround picks from the last few years,
lottery level talents Jalen green All,Princhion Goon, Jabari Smith, Junior Tarry

(23:48):
Eason, Kim Whitmore, Aman Thompson. Those are your foundation. And then
the guys who invested heavily in thisoffseason, Fred VanVleet and Dylan Brooks,
who just dropped up a great FeebleWorld Cup run with Canada. He had
thirty nine points Sunday, and allof a sudden that theycame a footnote in
terms of our Rockets discourse. Understandablyso, given the severity of the allegations
against Kevin Porter Junior. That isyour foundation moving forward. It wasn't even

(24:11):
clear if Kevin Porter Junior would bewith the team after this coming season.
Again, his contract wasn't guaranteed.There's a chance you'd use him a salary
filler. There's a chance maybe youjust let him go if another incident happened,
which clearly it did. Kevin PorterJunior was always a piece that would
be nice if it worked out,but he was never a core piece.

(24:32):
He was never essential. So whileit's unfortunate that didn't work out, and
in this particular season, because somany of those core Sex members are still
relatively young, I do think itlowers the floor of this team in the
long haul. I don't think itactually hurts them all that much, And
if anything, it might actually acceleratethe development of Bomb and Thompson and camp
Wood war because now there's a fewmore minutes for them to grab in their

(24:53):
rookie season, and of course nowthey can be mentored by email Udoka as
the Rockets move for So that's sortof my look. It's a sad day,
but in the grand scheme, Idon't think it's necessarily a pivotal day.
If that makes sense. It's extremelyunfortunate for the people involved in the
situation. That's what's most important.And in terms of the Rockets who invested

(25:14):
so much in Kevin Porter Junior,or not just the player, but the
person in the last couple of years, it is unfortunate that it seems like
an investment won't have the long termpayoff. But I don't think it's surprising.
They knew that this was something ofa project, that this was definitely
a risk, and unfortunately this ishow it played out. One last thing
I'll say about it, the Rocketsgave Kevin Porter Junior a second chances.

(25:36):
Want to make clear that the secondchances they gave were not on something this
severe. However, they did givesome second chances, most notably you know
the incident I referenced on you yearsday twenty twenty two. There were some
people, most notably Chris Mannix ofSports Illustrator, who said, you know,
the Rockets had just got him thenand instead of the Rockets, you
know, tried to reform him oncemore. And from then until today,

(25:57):
there weren't any issues, at leastnone it went public, none that we
know of. And so if thishappens in the future, I'm sure there
will be a temptation amongst some tofeel burned and say it's not worth it,
and I think that would be abit of a overreaction. Now,
let's be clear, there's differing levelsof infractions. Certainly not advocating for a

(26:19):
second chance after what he's accused ofdoing this morning, that's unacceptable. There
should be zero tolerance for that.However, I'm sure there will be some
that the next time there's, youknow, a lesser infraction, saying well,
you know, let's cut bait here, because if we don't, it
could escalate to what the Kevin Porterjunior situation eventually became. To me,

(26:41):
that would be a bit unfair,because it should be noted there are plenty
of people who have taken advantage ofsecond chances that have reformed their behavior and
improved and matured. Just because itdidn't happen in this case doesn't mean that
it can't for someone else in thefuture. I hope this doesn't lead to
players being declared loss causes early intheir careers in the future, because there

(27:04):
are several examples of guys who haveturned it around after having some off court
issues are concerned. It just apparentlyit's not going to happen here. I
think with KPJ, you have todeal with the situation swiftly and again as
soon as the MBA completes its investigation, regardless of whether they avoid the contract

(27:27):
themselves or impose some other form ofdiscipline, and then say the Rockets you
can handle it from here. Ithink the Rockets will be very swift and
their response to this. But interms of I guess tying it in with
before for starters, I'm uncomfortable.It's sort of using it to advance personal
agendas. I know some people,a lot of people, quite frankly,

(27:48):
I've looked at Kevin Porter Jr.As something of a lightning rod, and
that's completely fair. But this isan entirely separate situation. So let's please
not try and conflate the allegations ofdomestic assault and strangulation with our misgivings of
Kevin Printer junior to the basketball player, or some of the things like him
leaving the arena at halftime. No, these are entirely separate incidents, and

(28:11):
I think the way to look atthis moving forward is that you should be
aware of the risk, which theRockets clearly were. Again, that's why
they have all these team options inthe contract. They know why they got
him for so cheap. They didinvest in his personal development, they got
him to work with John Lucas.It's not like they turned a blind eye
to it. They were very aware. You simply have to be ready,

(28:33):
and I think they will be totake action if things do escalate. In
my opinion, the proper response isnot to just have you know, earlier
in the process, just to rulewith an iron fist and the slightest problem
say you know what, this guy'sa bad apple and he's gonna turn into
the next KPJ. This is justgoing to escalate into taking time bomb.
No, I think that's unfair.There are plenty of players who have had

(28:56):
some concerns, some minor discipline issuesearlier in their careers, and they've grown
out of it, they've matured,they've become better people. We should leave
the door open to that. What, in my opinion, is the right
way to handle it is to justyou know, file it away, consider
it. Certainly when you do thingslike negotiate their contracts that the Rockets clearly
did in the Kevin Porter Junior situation, and then be ready to act if

(29:19):
and when it does escalate to thatnext level as it did today. And
again, the Rockets can't do thatright now because the NBA has jurisdiction,
but if they have, if andwhen they have the ability to do so,
and they might not even need to, the NBA might just avoid it
themselves. I expect them to handlethis appropriately. And again, the basketball

(29:41):
impacts, that's minimal. We've gotplenty of other shows I'm sure in the
days, weeks, and months aheadto talk about that. In the short
term, you'll feel it. Ina long term. Honestly, don't think
it's that big of a deal.But again, we can get into that
more in the future because I don'twant to try and trivialize this situation too
much on it is honestly just ashocking and very sad day. So with

(30:03):
that, I'll conclude my remarks.Again, this is a bit of a
different episode. No palo, nomusic. Want this to be fairly no
frills, just get some initial reactionand context out there. Bottom line is,
I think you should plan on KevinPorter Junior not being a part of
this basketball team moving forward. Neversay never. Maybe there's something else that
emerges. I don't know what thatwould or could be, but I think

(30:27):
from a practical standpoint, Jalen Greenis your starter at shooting guard. He's
your future at the position, andthose minutes off the bench that you were
looking at, you know, beat point guard, shooting on small forward
that we're going to Kevin Porter Junior. That's probably going more Tom and Thompson
than Camp, more of the tworookies you just drafted now. And bottom
line, I just don't think KevinPorter Junior is a part of the future
of the Houston Rockets anymore. We'llsee. Always possible that I'm wrong,

(30:48):
but in this case, I highlydoubt I am. It's just a matter
of dotting the eyes, crossing thet's, and letting the party with jurisdiction
that's the NBA League Office take theinitial steps and the Rockets will see where
they are after that. Anyway,that'll do it for today's show. We'll
be back, hopefully with some morepositive stuff in the days ahead. If
you want recontent before then, certainlyrocketswarre dot ushit today dot com. That's

(31:10):
got all of our news stories onthe Kevin Porter Junior situation, but also
on myself on Twitter at then dubos, Palo on Twitter at Palo Alps,
NBA, and the show on Twitterthe logger Line where you can get information
for our sponsors and partners and friendsof the program as well. With that,
I will adjourn. Thanks always forlistening. Please come back soon for
another new episode of the Logger Line