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The Houston Rockets got Kevin Porter Jr. for peanuts earlier this season. Off-court problems led the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade their former first-round pick, and the Rockets are incredibly thankful that they did. In 22 games as a Rocket entering Thursday, Porter had averaged 15.2 points and 6.2 assists per game. Those averages both went up on Thursday.
Houston’s second-year guard scored 50 points and dished out 11 assists in an upset victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Unsurprisingly, at age 20, that made Porter the youngest player ever to score 50 points in a Rockets uniform.
That wasn’t the only history that Porter made on Thursday, though. He joined some impressive company and passed several legends in the all-time record books:
- Porter is just the fourth 20-year-old ever to score 50 points in a game. LeBron James did it twice before his 21st birthday. So did Brandon Jennings, and Devin Booker holds the all-time record with 70 points as a 20-year-old. Porter, only a week short of his 21st birthday, is the oldest of that bunch.
- James had previously been the youngest player ever to rack up at least 10 assists in a 50-point game. He was 23. Porter is three years younger.
- Only 13 players in NBA history had ever reached the 50-11 plateau. Seven of them are already in the Hall of Fame: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Tiny Archibald, Rick Barry and Rich Guerin. Five others are headed there: LeBron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard and Nikola Jokic. The floor is Stephon Marbury, who made two All-NBA Teams.
Porter has a long way to go catch up to the names on that last list, but the fact that he joined it at such a young age is a remarkable testament to his talent. If Porter can stay out of trouble and continue to develop at this rate, he has a chance to be one of the very best players in the NBA. If the names on that list are any indication, we should expect nothing less.