Less than two years after winning a championship with the Golden State Warriors, Otto Porter Jr. announced his shock retirement on Monday after 11 years in the league.
Despite being just 30-years-old, injuries have finally caught up with the veteran forward who’s no longer capable of performing at the level he would like. Regardless, the latter half of Porter’s career will be characterized by a special season with the Warriors where he won his only NBA championship.
Porter may have only played 82 combined regular season and playoff games for Golden State, but his name will forever be remembered among fans for his contribution the success of the 2021-22 season.
With that in mind, let’s look back at three memorable moments from Porter’s time with Golden State:
Much of Porter’s value to the Warriors came through his high-level three-point shooting from the power-forward position. He may have shot 37% from beyond the arc in the 2021-22 regular season, but it often felt like more such was the purity in his shot.
That was never more on display than in a November 7 game against the Houston Rockets at Chase Center. Porter went for 15 points and nine rebounds in the game on 5-of-7 three-point shooting, but it was the three consecutive triples in a 50-second span late in the first-half that had his teammates going crazy on the bench.
In terms of singular performances, it’s hard to go past Porter’s stunning late-game scoring to beat the Phoenix Suns on Christmas Day of 2021. With the Warriors up two and just over two minutes remaining, Porter bailed out a poor offensive possession with a baseline jumpshot to extend the lead to four.
Following a miss from Jae Crowder on the other end, Porter got into his bag with a rare step-back jumpshot off the dribble. The shot forced a Suns timeout, with the veteran forward laughing and pointing back at the Phoenix bench.
Just to cap things off, Porter sealed the game with a tough turning catch-and-shoot three on Golden State’s next possession. It was an unbelievable sequence that will live long in the memory of Warrior fans.
While there was no specific on-court moment, Steve Kerr’s decision to move Porter into the starting lineup prior to Game 4 of the NBA Finals proved a memorable one. Golden State were down 2-1 and faced a season-defining matchup in Boston for Game 4.
The remainder of the series will be remembered for Stephen Curry’s brilliance, particularly in Game 4 when he went for 43 points. But regardless of how much of a role Porter actually had, his move into the starting unit coincided with a shift in momentum that allowed the Warriors to win three-straight games.
It’s not a fact you’ll hear too often, but the fact Porter started the last three games of the Finals on a championship team cannot be understated. He may not have a Finals MVP like Andre Iguodala did in 2015, yet it was an eerily similar turn in the series’ outcome.
