Why is Jontay Porter surging for Mizzou? He's processing the answers to his questions

Jontay Porter’s parents recently bought him a used Ford SUV, but the Missouri freshman forward had to repay them, and this is where the story takes a funny twist.

Porter didn’t have enough U.S. dollars available when his mother asked for the money he owed. So the 18-year-old got creative.

He sold off about half of his portfolio of five different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Tron.

“I was kind of sad, because (the market) was about to bounce back,” Porter said. “But my mom needed it right away.”

Millions of people invest in decentralized, internet-based cryptocurrencies. But few possess Porter’s combination of physical traits and varied interests. He is blessed with passing skills that make him look like a far more mature basketball player than his age would indicate. He also made the savvy investment move of buying various types of coins to try and stabilize his investment, again making him look far more mature than his age would indicate.

“I did my own research, obviously; that’s what you should always do if you’re investing,” said Porter, who began this venture by spending $300 on bitcoins and slowly invested “bits and chunks” of his student-athlete per diem in more cryptocurrencies, the market for which has since soured. “I’m obviously not going to put all of my money in cryptocurrency.”

And obviously Porter would be the Tiger basketball player to pay his parents back in this way. It’s his nature to have divergent interests from most athletes and to dive wholly into them, often while learning on his own.

“He’s always been a thinker,” said Michael Porter Sr., his father and a Missouri assistant coach.

As Missouri prepares for its first NCAA Tournament game in five years, Jontay is averaging 21 points and 7.7 rebounds over the Tigers’ last three games. He is somewhat shy, so his answer for why this is happening is that he is just making his shots, which is true. He has converted 10 of his last 14 three-pointers.

But another reason Jontay scored in double figures 10 times during conference play, including five times in a row, is that he is combatting, or at least changing, his disposition.

Jontay, who graduated a year early from high school, is smart and wants to know the why behind coaches’ instructions. But he has learned this season not to overthink every play or instruction.

“Jontay’s a very questioning guy sometimes,” his older brother, Michael Porter Jr., said. “He thinks he knows better than everybody else. That’s a thing he's really grown in. If anybody was going to get that out of him, it was going to be coach Cuonzo (Martin). He wasn’t going for any of that.”

During one practice early this season, the Tigers were running through a fast-break drill, and Jontay threw a behind-the-back pass that made Martin angry.

“I was like, ‘Why?!’ ” Jontay said. “It was a good pass, and they hit the shot. I was just super-confused why he didn’t want me to do that if it worked. He explained it to me. I was still in my mind wondering.”

The younger brother has always been somewhat of a confident self-learner, his parents said. Take the cryptocurrency investments, for example.

“He had the gumption to just do it,” said Lisa Porter, mother of eight. “All my other kids would really debate over it.”

When the Porter family shifted toward becoming raw vegans, Jontay workshopped variations of his pancake recipe, which had been the best in the family when it included dairy.

And when Jontay had an iPhone as a sixth grader, he took it apart. At first, he began hacking, or “jailbreaking,” iPhones’ software. Then he began making technical fixes and upgrades. He researched the Columbia market for iPhone repairs, and he established his own business on Craigslist — with the objective of undercutting other services in town.

“If they charged 100 bucks, I would charge like $80,” Jontay said. “Twenty below.”

The business stopped as basketball became more serious, but Jontay still keeps spare glass to fix his own cell phone.

He calls himself “a man of many interests.”

“I’ve been around guys like that,” said Martin, who appreciates Porter’s desire to learn more. “You want guys to ask questions. I think, oftentimes, so many young guys struggle because they don’t ask, because it’s not cool to ask. … I think those are the ones that fall short.”’

The concern the Tigers coaching staff has had with Porter’s constant questioning is that the freshman has needed to learn when to ask. There were times this season, Porter Sr. said, when Jontay would ask for more information during a live game, as he passed the bench while running up and down the court.

Porter’s recent production is the sign of a player who is finally processing all of the information he demands, Martin said. The thinker does not have to think as much.

“He grasps why we’re doing it,” Martin said.

As a result, Jontay has made himself a real candidate to leave school after just one year to go pro, just like his more highly touted older brother. But Jontay said that is a worry for another time.

For now, he is focused Mizzou winning its first NCAA Tournament game since 2010. And when the season is over, he will spend more time on a new hobby: flying his Mavic Pro drone.

The device retails for about $1,000, which at first made his mother resistant to the idea of her son buying one. But then she figured that him learning a new skill — shooting 4K aerial footage — was better than him playing video games.

“The more you learn,” Lisa Porter said, “the more you learn how to learn.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Why is Jontay Porter surging for Mizzou? He's processing the answers to his questions."