Michael Porter Jr. Asked People on Twitter to Pray for the Police Officers in the George Floyd Murder & It Didn’t Go Over Well

Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. took to Twitter to address the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota and, well, here you go:

https://twitter.com/MPJr/status/1265702305086664709?s=20

Porter Jr. writes, “As much as you pray for George family, gotta also pray for the police officer(s) who were involved in this evil. As hard as it is, pray for them instead of hate them…Pray that God changes their hearts.”

I do think Porter Jr. comes from a place of love and with the perspective that hate won’t change anything for the better which may very well be true. But, man. You knew this wouldn’t go over well, right? I mean, Michael is a very nice, young player and very entitled to his opinion which in this case is would be considered a bit “alternative” from what we’ve seen from other athletes, celebrities, and basically any rational thinking person. That’s not to say this is an irrational stance. I am not implying that in any way. If Porter Jr. went about trying to condone or justify what the officers did then that would be irrational. This is not that. However, this is one of those, especially considering how volatile this topic is right now, where you probably just want to pray silently. The backlash was expected:

Nah im good

— Hoops Reference (@HoopsReference) May 27, 2020

pic.twitter.com/mMKDoNK8n2

— Stephen A. Smith Burner (@SASBurnerAcct) May 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/TotalToughScene/status/1265710293012942853?s=20

https://twitter.com/dazza__mac/status/1265708322642169859?s=20

There’s plenty more in the thread which are too sensitive to post in here. There were of course some who agreed with MPJ so that should be noted:

What a graceful and mature perspective, Mike. Good for you. I agree. Tragic on all accounts.

— Josh Helmuth KRDO (@Jhelmuth) May 27, 2020

Officially my favorite nugget

— Keelan Wedeking (@KeelanWedeking) May 27, 2020