Michael Porter Jr. has had his share of NBA learning curves, but the mistake he still calls the most mortifying didn’t happen on the court. It happened on Snapchat, and it involved the last person you’d ever want to accidentally put on blast: NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
When Michael Porter Jr leaked Adam Silver’s number😭😭 https://t.co/WCH1ULe7BV pic.twitter.com/k4f57eYkln
— Will💔😵💫 (@HoodieWilll) July 1, 2025
Porter recently revisited the story and didn’t sugarcoat how panicked he felt in the moment. After inadvertently posting a snap that displayed Silver’s contact information during the league’s rookie programming in 2019, Porter said his mind went straight to worst-case scenario.
“I’m thinking I’m getting kicked out the league,” he recalled, describing the wave of consequences that followed once the post started spreading.
The reason the incident became such a piece of NBA internet folklore is simple: it wasn’t just “a number.” Reports at the time noted that Silver’s cell number and email were visible, and screenshots spread fast enough that fans began messaging him before the post could be fully contained.
Porter said the league made him address it directly in front of a room full of players.
“They had me walk up there in front of all these guys and apologize,” he said. “That was the most embarrassing time of my life.”
It’s a story that endures because it captures the modern NBA in one painfully human snapshot: a young player, a phone, a split-second post, and suddenly the league office is doing damage control because the internet moves at screenshot speed. Porter survived it, obviously, and the league moved on, but the cringe, as he tells it, has remained undefeated.
