Jevon Porter, 20, has three older brothers, three potential role models. Like him, all three are basketball players.

Michael Porter Jr., 25, is locked in, pursuing a second consecutive NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets. He’s in the second year of a five-year, $179.3 million contract, a key cog on arguably the best team in the NBA.

Jontay Porter, 24, is locked out, issued a lifetime ban from the NBA on April 17 for violating the league’s gambling policy. The NBA launched an investigation against him a month earlier, and the Toronto Raptors backup center was found to have allegedly disclosed confidential information to bettors and limited his participation in at least one game to influence prop bets.

Coban Porter, 22, is locked up, sentenced to six years in a Colorado prison April 19 for killing 42-year-old Uber driver Katharina Rothman while driving drunk. Porter, who played basketball for one season at the University of Denver, pleaded guilty to felony charges of vehicular homicide-DUI and vehicular assault-DUI.

In the latest chapter of a whirlwind of poor choices with devastating consequences, Jevon was arrested Saturday in Boone County, Mo., at 1:31 a.m. on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. The 6-foot-11 forward played the last two seasons at Pepperdine and recently transferred to Loyola Marymount.

“We are aware of recent reports and are gathering information about the matter,” Loyola Marymount said in a statement.

The brothers are four of Michael and Lisa Porter’s eight children, and the common thread through all 10 family members is basketball excellence.

Michael played at the University of New Orleans, was an assistant coach under Lorenzo Romar at Washington and was director of player development at Missouri. He currently runs a travel program sponsored by Michael Jr. called MPJ Elite.

Lisa (Becker) Porter played basketball at Iowa after averaging an astonishing 58.7 points a game at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High. The oldest Porter children, Bri and Cierra, played at Missouri. The youngest boy is Isaak, who played at Father Tolton Catholic High in Columbia, Mo., and the youngest girl is Jayda, a sophomore star at Columbia Rock Bridge High.

The decisions of Jontay, Coban and Jevon somehow haven’t had a negative impact on the play of Michael Jr., who averaged 22.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in the first-round playoff series win over the Lakers that began just days after Jontay was banned from the NBA and Coban was sentenced to prison.

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.