Michael Porter Jr. will represent Team USA at Nike Hoops Summit. (Photo: Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports)
PORTLAND, Ore. – Now that Michael Porter Jr. knows where he’ll play college basketball after committing to Missouri, he can turn his attention to what he wants to accomplish in what likely will be one season before the 2018 NBA Draft.
“I want to win a NCAA Championship, a lot of people call me crazy but that’s my goal,” he said. “I want to do big things.”
Porter, ranked as the No. 1 player in the Class of 2017, is taking part in Friday’s Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, one of the last national events that caps the high school basketball season. Team USA faces Team World at 10 p.m. ET (ESPN2).
This is a time to close one chapter and enter the next.
Porter and many of the players in the Hoop Summit will head to New York next week for the Jordan Brand Classic.
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For Porter, this has been a chance to take a deep breath with his future plans finalized after a release from Washington. He will be able to sign with Missouri on Wednesday at the start of the signing period.
The 6-10 Porter had set plans to attend Washington after relocating to the Pacific Northwest for his senior year and leading Nathan Hale (Seattle) to an unbeaten season and the 3A title game. Michael Porter Sr. had accepted a job on Lorenzo Romar’s staff, prompting the move.
After Romar was fired, Porter Sr. accepted a job on Cuonzo Martin’s staff at Missouri, returning the Porter family to the Midwest.
“I’m excited. To go back there with all my friends and family, it will be awesome,” Porter Jr. said after the first Team USA practice of the Nike Hoop Summit.
Porter Jr. lived in Missouri from fifth grade until the move in 2016. Choosing Missouri was deeper than basketball, not only with his father obtaining a job on the coaching staff, but because his two older sisters play for the Tigers’ women’s basketball team.
Porter committed to Mizzou on March 24, before he left for Chicago and the McDonald’s All America Game in Chicago. He was named MVP with 17 points in the West’s 109-107 victory.
“I was really relieved to not have to deal with all the questions about it,” he said. “I knew where I wanted to go so I didn’t want to put any unnecessary suspense into the situation.”
Porter, the American Family Insurance ALL-USA Boys Basketball Player of the Year, knows his work is far from done. He remains humble and hungry and refuses to overlook this current event.
Porter helped Team USA to a first-place finish at the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, which earned the Americans a berth into the 2017 FIBA U19 World Championship.
“I’m blessed to be here, there are only 12 kids chosen to represent our country,” he said. “Whenever you have USA on your chest, you have a chance to do something special. You go down in history.”
“I really want to work hard here and get the win on Friday.”