Kevin Porter Jr. won’t be with the Rockets as they begin training camp and their preseason following his arrest for assault last month, general manager Rafael Stone told reporters Monday at the team’s media day.
And it remains unclear when — if ever — Porter could return to the team after he was arrested and charged with assault and strangulation following a dispute with his girlfriend in a Millennium Hilton New York Hotel room on Sept. 11.
“Going back a few weeks, as soon as I heard the allegations, I informed his representatives that he could not be part of the Houston Rockets,” Stone said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “They understood and he has not been with the team or around the team or had any interaction with the team since that time and will not be at media day today or in training camp.”
Stone referred to the charges that the 23-year-old guard is facing as “deeply troubling.”
Porter’s girlfriend, WNBA free agent Kysre Gondrezick, reportedly sustained a cut on her face and a broken bone in her neck from the alleged assault.
She was granted a full temporary restraining order following the incident, according to multiple reports.
Porter pleaded not guilty and was released on $75,000 bail, with his next Manhattan court date scheduled for Oct. 16.
Following the incident and arrest, the Rockets were looking to trade Porter — even offering draft capital — according to the Athletic, less than a year after the team signed him to a four-year extension in October 2022.
Stone declined to speculate whether Porter — who has been at the center of various off-the-court controversies throughout his career — would ever rejoin the team.
“I can’t answer that and stay in compliance with the policy,” Stone said, according to the Associated Press. “So I think this is now a league matter.”
At the NBA Board of Governors meeting in September, NBA commissioner Adam Silver called the allegations “horrific” but added the league still had time to investigate everything and make a decision about whether it’d be right for Porter to attend training camp.
And about three weeks later, it became clear that Porter wouldn’t be a part of those early-season practices or games — with the rest still to be determined.
