Professional US basketball player Michael Porter Jr (MPJ) of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Denver Nuggets, who cinched the championship this year, arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday at the invitation of CTBC Bank.
As part of the 2023 CTBC MPJ Taiwan Tour charity event, Porter visited the training center of T1 League team the New Taipei CTBC DEA, where he played some ball and discussed training methods with the team before sharing stories of the Nuggets’ triumph in the NBA Finals with junior-high school student players benefiting from the bank’s funding of sports programs.
CTBC Anti-Drug Educational Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) presided over the charity event, presenting the visiting athlete a personalized No. 1 DEA jersey, marking Porter’s appointment as the foundation’s anti-drug ambassador.
Photo courtesy of CTBC Bank
Porter was a five-star recruitment prospect and the No. 14 pick on the NBA draft before joining the Nuggets in 2018. In the past season, he averaged 17.4 points and 5.5 rebounds in 62 games as his team won their first-ever championship.
Earlier, the NBA star shook hands, posed for photographs and signed memorabilia for fans at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport when he arrived in the nation.
“I am out here to interact with the fans, so I am excited to be here,” he told reporters.
He said he was eager to see “what Taiwan is all about” and that he wanted to taste the food and visit beaches.
Asked about the training center, Porter said that he seeks to be an inspiration for young athletes with his faith and experience.
He also praised DEA’s players, saying that they showed a good understanding of passing and a strong offensive game, adding that these are the qualities of champion teams.
CTBC DEA head coach Lee Yi-hua (李逸驊) said that “Porter Jr was the most charismatic and friendly of all the NBA players he has interacted with and thoroughly showed his professionalism from warm-up to every step of the training procedure.”
The CTBC MPJ Taiwan Tour enabled Porter to interact with 60 student athletes from schools that are part of a CTBC-sponsored program with an emphasis on prevention of drug among young people via sports programs that instill purpose and self-confidence.
Porter was part of filming for an anti-drug video and he is to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the CTBC Brothers CPBL game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium today.
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