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Michael Porter Jr. has never been shy about discussing topics that go beyond basketball. Whether it’s about money, relationships, or faith, the stream of unfiltered topics always goes wild in his podcast, “Curious Mike.”
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But then again, there’s a level of honesty in MPJ’s show that you don’t find anywhere else. He isn’t afraid to ask or answer the uncomfortable questions or venture into territory that most people, much less NBA players, wouldn’t touch publicly.
That was certainly the case when adult content creator Sky Bri joined him on “Curious Mike.” Given Bri’s background, it was probably inevitable that pornography would become part of the conversation. But the lessons that flowed in the conversation, especially about the damage that porn brings to men, are enlightening, to say the least.
MPJ gets real about watching porn
Porter knows a thing or two about sacrificing what feels good in the moment for something better down the road. The Brooklyn Nets forward had to be patient throughout his entire basketball career when he dealt with injuries that required multiple surgeries.
Of course, hoops and porn are two completely different subjects. But when MPJ explained his outlook on pornography, he approached it through a similar lens of short-term gratification and long-term consequences.
“I think one of the main problems of porn or lusting after girls on the Internet and things like that is it does give you a false perception,” Porter Jr.
“You definitely don’t feel good about it as a dude. You can say that it’s the short-term pleasure over the long-term peace. During the moment, it’s lit. It’s cool. I’m not even going to lie.”
To bring his point home, Porter Jr. likened pornography to an addictive drug. Illegal drugs, like heroin, for instance, are pleasurable in the moment. But as soon as the initial high wears off, the person is left chasing that feeling again, often at an increasingly greater cost.
“You lose energy. You don’t really feel motivated to do what you were doing before. People call it post-nut clarity, but I think… that you can use that potent energy to go do other things. Because when you’re done (watching porn), you feel like a sloth… It’s so damaging for a multitude of reasons,” the 2023 NBA champion added.
In Porter’s view, the real harm happens afterward. The temporary satisfaction isn’t worth it if it leaves you feeling drained, not to mention the relationships it might ruin.
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And that’s really the trade-off that MPJ was getting at. A few moments of pleasure might feel good in the moment, but if they come at the expense of your peace afterward, the choice should be pretty simple. As Porter Jr. sees it, it makes sense to hold on to something that lasts much longer.
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Diving deep into the stats
Interestingly, Porter Jr. shared his thoughts because they aligned with Bri’s viewpoint. Sky left the industry because of the guilt brought on by the fact that watching porn is detrimental in so many ways.
“It’s damaging to men and their mental health and how they view sex and relationships. There’s so many statistics that you could look up. It’s all negative,” Bri said.
True enough, the stats back up this claim. According to the Institute of Family Studies, “nearly 1 in 3 young adults (32 percent) who watch pornography at least once a day report feeling ‘down, depressed, or hopeless’ most or all of the time, compared with 19 percent of those who rarely or never watch porn.”
Statistics obviously don’t tell the whole story. Still, the numbers give some context as to why Bri and Porter Jr. were willing to have the conversation in the first place. They arrived at their views from very different places, yet somehow ended up pretty much in the same spot.
Related: “It’s like a drug” – Michael Porter Jr. on why men in relationships shouldn’t watch porn
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This story was originally published September 17, 2026 at 6:36 AM.