NEW YORK — Having appeared in 158 games in his last two seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Michael Porter Jr. joins the Nets with durability now part of his identity, a far cry from the health concerns that once defined him.

Two back surgeries cost Porter nearly all of his lone collegiate season at Missouri, dropped his stock in the 2018 NBA draft and sidelined him for his entire rookie year in Denver. A third procedure in 2021, after he appeared in just nine games, along with other minor setbacks, only deepened concerns about his long-term durability in the NBA.

After everything Porter has endured with injuries, there are days when he questions how much longer he wants to play.

“Basketball is my passion,” Porter said. “I want to play as long as I can. I think that it’s just easier in my head to be like, man, give it my all, everything I have this year, and then when the year is over, see where I’m at mentally and reevaluate. But in the back of my mind, obviously I want to play as long my body allows me to.”

Aside from a Grade 2 AC joint sprain in his left shoulder during the 2025 playoffs, which he played through, Porter has remained healthy in recent years. After Wednesday’s practice, he credited that durability to the work he put into his mental and emotional well-being after his third surgery, guided by Nicole Sachs, a psychotherapist known for her focus on chronic pain and mind-body healing.

“I didn’t realize how much of that actually stemmed from the mental side of things and the stress and all that,” Porter said. “So, once I kind of put all those pieces together, and I didn’t just pay attention to the physical side of things, I was able to have a very well-rounded approach to my rehab. And since then, I haven’t had any problems with my back.”

Porter sees Sachs’ methods as the future of chronic pain care and thinks it’s only a matter of time before the NBA takes notice. He says he’ll continue to help amplify her work.

“I think it’s kind of just now kind of bursting onto like the medical scene, that not everything has to do with your physical body or something going wrong mechanically,” Porter said. “But I’m working with Nicole a lot to kind of try to bring that onto the scene, just because there’s not a lot of players that are still playing that have been through the things I’ve been through. So, I know what helped me heal, and I feel like helping bring that onto the scene would be a cool thing for me.”

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