PORTLAND, Ore. — Terry Porter is a retired Portland Trail Blazer and current coach of the University of Portland men's basketball team. As a player, Porter was a two-time western conference champion and two-time NBA All-Star. We sat down with him for a quick fire round of 8 questions.
#1 - Nike or Adidas?
Terry Porter: Nike! [gestures toward swoosh emblem on shirt]
#2 - Jordan or Lebron?
Terry Porter: Jordan.
#3 - Who was the best trash talker?
Terry Porter: In our position, Gary Payton was the best trash talker [laughs].
#4 - What was the hardest place to play on the road?
Terry Porter: Chicago. That was the hardest. We didn't go there often but that place was really noisy and had great fans.
#5 - So what's more challenging, coaching in college or the NBA?
Terry Porter: They both have their challenges. I'd say there are more challenges off the court at the college level. There are a lot more things you have to help kids navigate through, from academics to social life. So definitely college.
#6 - What’s the most important skill to learn as a young basketball player?
Terry Porter: Playing hard. Building skills takes a while but the ability to play hard is something that will separate you as coaches look and evaluate you on the floor.
#7 - If Hollywood were to make a movie about your life, who would you want to play you?
Terry Porter: Denzel. He's got some basketball background, so he knows how to shoot it.
#8 - What’s your proudest accomplishment?
Terry Porter: As far as sports, I would say getting drafted, that was the first highlight. And then in life, being married, having kids, a family, to this day that's a highlight. When you start having kids and you're in there and you realize, I helped that, that's part of my DNA, it's a proud moment.
Bonus Questions:
Who was your toughest competitor on the court?
Terry Porter: There's so many it's hard to identify one. I would say Tim Hardaway. He's just competitive. For me, he was smaller, quicker, just tough for me to manage with his crossover and his scoring ability.
If you hadn't become a basketball player what would you have done?
Terry Porter: So I've always wanted to be, believe it or not, a news anchor. So I went to Stevens Point for communications so a lot of it specialized in going out in the field and doing stories on track and field and football. I did an internship back at WTMJ, which was channel four in Milwaukee. I had to cut my edit and put it all together, it was pretty impressive for me back in the day.
