Michael Porter Jr. finds himself in new surroundings this offseason after the Denver Nuggets traded him to the Brooklyn Nets. While Porter adjusts to life in New York, he has now found himself at the center of a viral report coming out of Taiwan.
Mirror Media reports that a transgender model named Xiao A La checked into a five-star hotel with an NBA player a couple of years ago. The publication obtained a blurred picture of the two together, and based on the characteristics, fans have speculated that the player is Porter.
Porter visited Taiwan in September 2023, which gives some credence to this theory. According to this report, Xiao A La had received a private invitation from a man who was staying in the presidential suite at the hotel. Xiao did not know who he was and only later found out that he was an NBA player.
Xiao A La, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2020, did not go into detail regarding the meeting. Xiao did reveal, though, that she accidentally broke her tooth and required emergency treatment the following day.
With Porter at the center of all this, fans dug up comments he made on his Curious Mike podcast in 2024.
“I hear wild stories about some of these dudes,” Porter said. “… Their fetishes get so crazy. They might be a straight man, but they’ve done so much stuff with so many pretty girls, and they have so much access to pretty girls, that now they’re over here messing with [trans women], or now they’re over here messing with dudes.”
There is nothing wrong with any of this, of course, but there is still a stigma that gets associated. Porter is unlikely to address this subject, and he isn’t obliged to either. The 27-year-old’s sole focus would be on impressing when he steps out on the court for his new team.
The Nets have high expectations as well, with an executive backing Porter to challenge for the scoring title. He averaged 18.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Nuggets as the third option in 2024-25, and it will be interesting to see how he fares in a bigger role.
