Why Is Former NBA Star Kevin Porter Jr. Not Playing Anymore?

Once upon a time, Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. was an NBA star.

But then his luck changed for the worse, and the Washington native was unceremoniously booted from the league.

Why is he not playing anymore? Well, that isn't exactly true, because Kevin is playing — just not in the United States. Read on to find out what Kevin Porter Jr. did to get himself in hot water, and where his professional basketball career stands today.

It was September 2022 when Kevin's career nosedive began. He'd already survived another scandal — more on that in a moment.

First, let's revisit how in 2022, his then-girlfriend, ex-WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, accused him of domestic violence in a New York City hotel, per AP News.

The outlet reports that at the time of the incident, she reported to police that the Rockets star punched her in the face with a closed fist many times, leaving her with a deep gash above her eye. She also allegedly sustained bruising — as well as other bodily harm — as a result of the deeply disturbing incident.

Since that time, however, Kysre has backtracked on her story, and said in court in January 2023 that prosecutors were perpetrating a “false narrative.”

The result of the case was that Kevin was able to plead down his domestic abuse charge to misdemeanor assault and a harassment violation, per AP News.

“The resolution will allow Mr. Porter to put this incident, which involved false felony allegations and false facts, behind him with no criminal record and move forward,” the player's lawyers, Phillip Jobe and Stephanie Kelemen, said in a statement.

But the damage to his career was done, with the Rockets trading him to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

That team cut Kevin from its roster, leaving him without an NBA team to call home.

A look at Kevin's Instagram reveals that he has a new jersey on — but he isn't playing for the NBA.

Instead, per Eurohoops, Kevin Porter Jr. signed with Greek club PAOK and is now playing for Greece’s Stoiximan Basket League as of early April 2024.

It's worth noting that despite proudly donning his new uniform, Kevin turned off the comments to his post, likely to avoid any negative chatter around his past or his decision to go abroad to play.

Meanwhile, his debut overseas was not exactly golden. But PAOK’s play-caller, Stathis Nerantzakis, had this take on Kevin's future, saying in a Greek television interview, "For sure, lack of games was apparent early. He has the quality to help us over the next games."

It's worth noting that the domestic abuse case was not Kevin's first brush with the law, having been accused of improper handling of a firearm in 2020. At that time, he was playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and did not play during the 2020–2021 season perhaps as a result of the charge, which was later dropped.