Kevin Porter Jr. has tried to honor the legend of his father, a man he mostly only knew through stories, by persevering through adversity to reach the NBA.
For instance, Ayanna never told Kevin Jr. the one from before her son was born that could teach him about how quickly life can spiral out of control — the one that altered the course of two South Seattle families in 1993.When Ayanna looks at her son, she sees his father. They are so much alike, sometimes it hurts her. They’re emotional. They’re playful. They have a tough exterior but a softness inside.
If his year at USC showed anything about him, it’s that Porter may care too much — so much that he struggles to harness it. Kevin was lucky to have both his parents, and he wasn’t about to have the mother of his baby out there on her own. Ayanna was 17 and Kevin 18 when they welcomed their daughter, Keayanna Porter, in May 1992.
The couple would name their son after his father, which said something. In their close-knit community, where reputations don’t change easily, it was as if Kevin and Ayanna were saying they had nothing to hide. Almost fearlessly, they would raise Kevin Jr. surrounded by the same bleak landscape and the same influences that his dad could never escape.
“Because I have always been around people who had their father,” Porter said. “Being in basketball, you always see the father-and -on type of relationship that you always want, what I always wished to have. When I was younger, I had a hard time dealing with that.” Kevin Porter Jr. averaged 28 points and 12 rebounds per game as a senior at Rainier Beach High in Seattle.
Bethea rode Kevin Jr. to the point he considered transferring. He suspended him numerous times. Ayanna met with Bethea to find out why he was being so hard on Kevin Jr. Under Bethea’s watch, Kevin begrudgingly bided his time. As a sophomore, he played a supporting role behind eventual NBA point guard Dejounte Murray. As a junior, the Vikings were his team, and, when they matched up with future NBA lottery pick Michael Porter Jr.’s Nathan Hale team, Kevin set out to show he was the best Porter Jr. on the floor.
For many reasons, Porter Jr.’s rise to one-and-done NBA player after averaging 9.5 points as a USC freshman feels improbable, particularly when one hears that if not for a fateful twist in the investigation into an alleged 1993 South Seattle murder, Little Kevin never would have been conceived to be born on May 4, 2000.
Instead, Kevin Sr. was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, allowing him to come back to his young family and try to make up for a tragic mistake.“He was a family guy,” she said. “Whatever happened on the street was the street. He never brought nothing home.”
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