Michael Porter Jr. Again Stands Athwart History, Saying “Damn, That’s Crazy”

It is late August, the waning days of a long summer. Though the oppressive heat still imposes itself on you, the days are shortening noticeably, the faint whisper of a chill in the air perceptible in the stiller moments of deep night. Soon there will be red leaves, sweaters onto shoulders, and NBA basketball. You both anticipate and fear the turnover of the seasons, though it feels abstract—that is, until your phone lights up. Someone has sent you an Instagram link to a clip from Michael Porter Jr.'s podcast, Curious Mike, where he and Lonzo Ball are inadvertently inventing effective altruism from first principles. Unable to look away, you scroll further and select a clip with the banner text "HOW WOMEN ARE TOXIC," and the captioned text "girls be toxic," learning about how these females often display toxic tendencies. Ah yes, you think to yourself, Brooklyn Nets basketball is right around the corner. Porter Jr. is a figure of fascination around these parts, as he is a starting-caliber NBA player who is seemingly more dedicated to cutting odious podcast clips than he is to helping his team win basketball games. Last offseason, Porter Jr. called attention to himself—it wouldn't be quite right to say he "got himself in trouble" or "generated controversy," since those formulations presuppose both a consensus reality against which he clashed, and a mechanism of consequence that doesn't exist—by going on one of the Nelk Boys' podcasts and saying stuff like, "I'm not saying I'm a misogynist or anything, but I'll throw on some Andrew Tate and see how they react," because you have to "test a girl early" and "do your research." It was an occasion to reflect on the alarming, shrinking distance between high-level athletes and the internecine culture of the right-wing internet, which is to say: the internet.

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