Bobby Portis has embraced a nice role off the bench for the Bucks, as he’s become a fan favorite over the course of the season for a team that’s currently competing for an NBA championship.
Last year was quite the opposite for him, as he was toiling away on a Knicks team that was seemingly going nowhere. The Knicks declined Portis’ team option but offered him another deal, he revealed in an interview with Shams Charania of The Athletic.
“I didn’t really know if it was going to be a good situation for me,” Portis said. “The year prior, it wasn’t a good situation for me at all. It just wasn’t a culture I was used to. Obviously, Leon (Rose) and (William Wesley) and those guys were going to come in and try to change it around, but I just wanted to go to a winning culture and where I felt like I can fit in with guys.”
Portis talked about missing out on the Orlando bubble being a frustrating experience for him, but like most basketball fans, he ended up watching the games from afar, where he identified the Bucks as a team he can potentially fit in on.
“I actually hit Giannis (Antetokounmpo) up and told him I can come help the team and I can help everyone out,” Portis said. “He went to the boss (front office) and told him come and get me. It made it better, having a guy like that back me and having confidence in me every day. Just be myself — it makes it that much funner and that much easier for me to come play the game. The biggest thing with me this year is that I’m at peace with myself finally. I finally found myself in my career. The journey is what I appreciate the most about the NBA, man.”
Portis has earned the reputation as a high-energy big who can shoot the three and put up big stat lines from time to time, which earned him some huge offers in free agency. However, the 6-foot-10 forward seemingly values a winning situation over money.
“I just wanted to get on a winning team and show everyone that I can really like help a team win,” Portis said.
“Sometimes, you get on teams where all guys talk about is money… It’s not like that over here. Nobody talks about money. We talk about real-life sh*t; our families, we talk about what guys are invested in. We have great people in our organization. The training staff is top-tier people. We have coaches that really care about you as a human being.”
Portis will enter free agency again this offseason, but from the sound of everything, he seems perfectly content to stay in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future.
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Terence Davis will be seeking a deal that pays him $9 million annually, according to Jason Bee of The Sacramento Bee. Davis averaged 13.1 points off the bench in 27 games off the bench for the Kings this season after being acquired from the Raptors at the trade deadline.
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Magic players are very happy with the hire of Jamahl Mosley as their new head coach, with Jonathan Isaac “excited” to pick his brain from Mosley being around other great players, according to Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel. Mosley worked as an assistant coach for 14 years in the NBA prior to being hired by the Magic.
