Terry Porter
Teams
Portland Trail Blazers - 1985-95
Minnesota Timberwolves - 1995-98
Miami Heat - 1998-99
San Antonio Spurs - 1999-02
Playoffs
Appearances - 16 (1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002)
Conference Finals - 4 (1990,1991,1992,2001)
NBA Finals - 2 (1990,1992)
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
All-NBA Second Team - 0 (1990)
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Assists - #17
Total Steals - #38
Three-Pointers Made - #56
Assists Per Game - #79
Three-Point Percentage - #97
League Leads
Total Assists (#4-1988,1989, #5-1987)
Assists Per Game (#4-1988,1989, #5-1987)
Three-Pointers Made (#3-1991, #5-1993)
Three Point Percentage (#4-1991)
Terry Porter was one of the NBA's all-time best small school success stories. He attended Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a Division III school, and had a good career, winning the NAIA Player of the Year and Tournament MVP as a junior, even though his team lost the championship. As a senior he averaged 19.7 points and 4.3 assists per game, and it was enough to get him drafted late in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers.
After one season coming off the bench in Portland, Porter became the team's starting point guard in 1986, a position he would hold for over 7 years. In his third season in the league, he averaged 10.1 assists per game, becoming the only Trail Blazers in history to surpass 10 per game. It was also the first of 3 straight seasons in which he finished in the top 5 in the league in assists.
It was also during this time that Porter and his star teammate Clyde Drexler made Portland one of the best teams in the league. They reached the Conference Finals in 3 straight seasons and advanced to the NBA Finals twice, losing in 1990 to the Pistons in 5 games, and in 1992 to the Bulls in 6 games.
After failing to average 10 points per game in 1995 for the first time since his rookie season, Porter left the Blazers in free agency to join the Timberwolves. His first season in Minnesota was the only time in his entire career in which he wouldn't reach the postseason, with 16 appearances in his 17 total seasons.
By this point, Porter had settled into a backup role, and he did that well, providing experience off the bench to help the Wolves, Heat, and Spurs reach the playoffs in each of his remaining seasons. In 2001, he had to step back into a starting role again for a while with the Spurs, and was able to reach the Conference Finals one last time alongside Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Porter was not a flashy player, but he played very consistently at an All-Star level for many years while helping his team make deep playoff runs. He had 8 straight seasons where he averaged between 13 and 19 points per game, and 5 straight seasons averaging at least 8 assists, while never missing more than 5 games in any of those seasons. Even late in his career he had 4 straight seasons in which he played every single game, and that helped contribute to his career totals, where he is currently #17 in assists and #38 in steals on the all-time list, and deserving of being named an all-time great.
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