Howard Porter

Sad news out of Minnesota where Villanova great Howard Porter is in grave condition after being beaten nearly to death. Porter, of course, is the star of the 1971 runner up that lost to UCLA. Porter, amazingly, was named outstanding player of the tournament for the losing team. The team and his accomplishments were stained and downplayed when the results were expunged from the record books after it was discovered that Porter accepted some ABA money during his senior season.

 

Rich Hoffman has a good column on Porter, the old Big 5 days at the Palestra, and a tinge of surprise and disappointment that such a great player could be forgotten and unrecognizable today.

 

I recall reading a retrospective several years ago about Porter and his pro career, such as it was. I believe he was drafted by the Bulls. Incredibly, he was a 2^nd round pick! (32^nd overall).  After a rookie camp, or maybe it was just regular training camp, the coaches and the scouts told the head coach and management something to the effect of “Howard can’t play.” It’s all very strange, but something about how Porter couldn’t pass and really couldn’t play when he wasn’t the most physically gifted player on the court. Then again, maybe there was something between the lines about his lack of motivation and the beginning of a drug addiction that would haunt him for years. Even with an “inability to play” he managed to kick around the NBA for 7 seasons, including stints with Chicago, Detroit, and ending with the Nets, though never coming close to rivaling his college career.

 

Still, when thinking of Porter I can’t help but be reminded of Fitzgerald’s description of Tom Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, “one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax.”