The NBA’s investigation into Milwaukee Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr.’s domestic violence incident back in 2023 has officially concluded, with the NBA determining that Porter would have received a four-game suspension. The reason I say “would” is because, according to Law Murray of The Athletic, the NBA and NBPA have agreed that, based on Porter not playing at all in the 2023–24 season, he has already served his suspension.
News @theathletic.com The league’s investigation into Kevin Porter Jr.’s 2023
ADdomestic violence incident has concluded, resulting in a four-game suspension. Based on the facts and circumstances, the NBA and NBPA have agreed that the suspension is deemed to have been served.
— Law Murray (@lawmurraythenu.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T17:49:34.103Z
This means that Porter will not miss any time during the season stemming from this investigation. For those who may have forgotten the incident itself, here is a quick rundown. Porter was arrested in September of 2023 and charged with assault and strangulation of his girlfriend, former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick. Porter, who was on the Houston Rockets at the time, traded him and two future second-round picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Jeremiah Robertson-Earl (one of those future seconds ended up being the Bucks' 2028 second-round pick). Once the trade was completed, KPJ was promptly cut by the Thunder, leading him to miss the 2023–24 season. Murray wrote the following for The Athletic in an article in July of last year:
“[In January of 2024], Porter reached a deal with prosecutors in a Manhattan court, pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault and a harassment violation in the case. As part of the deal, according to the Associated Press, Porter must complete a 26-week Abusive Partner Intervention Program, abide by a limited order of protection, attend all court dates, and have no further arrests. After a year, if Porter complies, he will be allowed to withdraw the plea, effectively clearing his criminal record.”
Gondrezick has since denied that Porter beat her to the degree in the police report and accused prosecutors of pushing a “false narrative.” She told the New York Post in October that she and Porter’s altercation lasted “for not even 10 seconds” in their room at the Millennium Hilton.
Now that everyone is caught up, here’s how I view this situation. While I can understand the reasoning of the NBA deciding that he already served what they deemed as a four-game suspension in a practical sense, from a moral stance, I can’t abide by it. Yes, Porter missed an entire season and lost out on a ton of money at the time, much longer than the four games. The NBA has had so many issues in determining the proper punishment for domestic violence, and when you look at other suspensions for less horrid actions, it’s mind-boggling how they determined four games as enough. Bryan Toporek, a senior multiplatform editor at Bleacher Report and contributor at Liberty Ballers, rightly called out how Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid was suspended for three games for shoving a reporter who brought up his son and dead brother:
Joel Embiid got a three-game suspension for shoving a reporter who brought up his son and dead brother in a column. Kevin Porter Jr. got a four-game suspension for this.
— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T17:53:38.736Z
I do think that three games was the proper punishment for Embiid. Regardless of what the reporter said, you can’t put your hands on anybody. Which is why Porter is only getting one more game for beating his girlfriend (now fiancée) is what troubles me. Here’s a comparison that is a little bit more at home for Bucks fans: Bobby Portis got suspended for 25 of the final 28 games of the regular season for violating the league's PED policies. We came to find out later that it was an accidental usage of a drug that had a similar name to the league-approved painkiller because one of his assistants got them confused. Hardly seems fair to suspend a player for over a quarter of the season for something accidental.
At the bare minimum, Porter should have received a 41-game suspension for his transgressions. If it were up to me, and as much as I like Porter’s game from a pure basketball perspective, he shouldn’t be in the league. There is no place in the NBA for that kind of behavior, and the only reason we can excuse it or ignore it is because he dribbles a basketball well. It’s hard for me to say complete banishment, because I’ve been taught growing up that there is room for second chances and redemption. Heck, it’s part of the reason I love Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars so much—stories of redemption. Yet, I’ve also been taught that there are lines you don’t cross, and beating women is one of them.
It’s another common theme of sports leagues seemingly refusing to take domestic violence seriously, and it’s disgusting that it seems to be the norm. The funny thing is that they could have determined that he earned a year’s suspension, but said that since he missed the 2023–24 season, the suspension had already been served. Yet, they decided to give themselves a PR headache and not do the right thing. The NBA needs to take a long, hard look at itself and do some self-scouting of its domestic violence polices.
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