During an appearance on “The Emily Austin Show,” the Brooklyn Nets forward didn’t hold back when discussing the league’s tanking epidemic.
“They gotta do something about this tanking. I don’t like how teams are deliberately trying to tank to get a good draft pick,” Porter Jr. stated.
The comments come as Porter Jr.’s own Nets sit 14th in the Eastern Conference with a dismal 16-47 record firmly in the lottery mix for a top draft pick. Despite the team’s struggles.
Social media immediately pounced on the apparent contradiction.“Your team is a main culprit,” one fan wrote“What is that something they gotta do? Players should start coming up with ideas,” another stated.
“That means the Nets be tanking the natural way,” a fan observed.“MPJ calling out tanking…Is the NBA lottery system broken?” another noted.
“He’s not wrong. Nets team just built like shit,” another fan commented.“Y’all saying him, nah the Nets just are genuinely ass unlike some of these teams,” someone else defended.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and league officials have been actively seeking ways to discourage tanking, but solutions remain elusive.
Porter Jr.’s comments reflect both his personal stance and the broader effort to ensure teams prioritize fair play and maintain fan trust as they navigate rebuilding strategies.
Whether that’s hypocrisy or simply a player expressing frustration with a broken system depends on your perspective. But his words have reignited a debate that isn’t going away anytime soon.