Episode 05: Terry Porter

Terry Porter: 17 year NBA Veteran & University of Portland Head Basketball Coach | Interviewed By Rashad Floyd 

One of my all-time favorite moments was when the Portland Trail Blazer organization honored me by retiring my jersey. When you play sports, you dream of getting honored in a way that your body of work is recognized and appreciated. My family was there to share this moment with me and it’s humbling when you're honored in such a way. I mean, that’s generational stuff, right? When I'm an old man barely walking with cane, I can tell my grandkids to look up in the rafters and say “Grandpa was a baller back in the day.”

This is about life. Obviously, basketball's very important, but the lessons you learn in basketball also transfers to life. I try to live my life in a purposeful way every day, and be impactful to the people that I come in contact with, and provide more opportunities for the next generation.

I'm Terry Porter, and this is my expression.

In sports or life, there's always lessons. The two most important men in my life were my dad, Herman Porter, and my college coach, Dick Bennett. Both taught me a lot about basketball, but also about how to be a man. My dad had a work ethic like none other that I've been around, and he talked a lot about having the willingness to get up and go do what you gotta do. To be a strong black man, I think it's something that I learned from him in regards to how to deal with things that you have to deal with growing up black. I would think that anybody who's in a position to be around a young man, I hope that's what they're doing, teaching them life skills and life lessons.

I think in today's world with so much stuff going on, it's about setting an example. Obviously, the wins and losses are very important in the process, but what example are you providing for them going forward? And everybody has to take that individual challenge. It's about how can you liJ somebody up. This is a brotherhood! Basketball has always been that way, it’s a family. The important thing is the respect factor. Everybody's together, everybody knows how to support each other. You get 'em as kids and you wanna try to provide an opportunity for them to get a degree from the great University of Portland and send them down the road of being successful.

When I think back to basketball and what it has provided for me, the opportunity to see different parts of the world, different parts of the country. It educated me about so many different things. The people I've been able to meet. When I got into my coaching profession with the Sacramento Kings, we made the All-star coaching staff. I would’ve never had that opportunity if it wasn't for basketball. I got the chance to coach Steve Nash, Kobe, Tim Duncan, who was one of the rare players I actually coached and played with. Basketball opened that up for me. It gave me a chance to come out to Portland, Oregon when I didn't have a clue where Portland, Oregon was. Coming here (my wife and I) for us as young people, a young couple, we grew up here from a professional standpoint. When my playing days were over and I traveled to different cities to coach; Sacramento, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Phoenix. At that point, we said, "Okay, we gotta figure out what's gonna be home for us."

We sat down as a family and everybody had a vote, and so we felt this was the best spot for us. Portland embraced us, it embraced me and my family. That's the beauty of Portland, being willing to accept each other's culture and respect each other's background. We all know that this world was built because of different people's backgrounds and ethnicities, and now it’s about getting everyone at the table.

I think one of the things we take from last year, is to not forget all the growing and all the pain that we went through. It was a wake-up call for so many people that things need to change. From my perspective, it's about trying to be part of the conversation with the purpose of trying to make a change.

One of the things we (coaches) talk to the players about, is to be a great leader, help people, and be impactful. Go find something that you're passionate about and use basketball for that vehicle and see if you can impact the world.