Turtle Beach

Celebrating Black History Month: A Conversation With Kevin Porter Jr.

Celebrating Black History Month: A Conversation With Kevin Porter Jr.

As part of Black History Month, Turtle Beach is proud to celebrate and spotlight the achievements of Black leaders within our own community through a series of conversations.

Today we are proud to be featuring Kevin Porter Jr., shooting guard for the Houston Rockets.

Turtle Beach: What do you think about when you hear “Black History Month”?

Kevin Porter Jr.: The first thing that comes to my mind thinking about Black History Month is myself being an African American, and learning everything about MLK, Malcom X, and all these great icons that came across history.

TB: When you were growing up, who inspired you? Who inspires you today?

KPJ: Biggest inspiration to me, is definitely my mom. She still is, to this day, the biggest inspiration on me. Just taught me how to persevere, and not be comfortable with any circumstance.

TB: What would you say to your teenage self?

KPJ: Looking back, I would just tell my teen self: Control what you can control. Everything happens for a reason, even if it doesn’t make sense. And just keep going, you can only hold yourself back doing nothing.

TB: What is one thing you think people can do to keep the conversation about Black history going not just in the month of February but all year long?

KPJ: Like I said, Black History Month, a lot of praises happen in February, but I feel like it should happen all the time. Like people say, “there is no history without black history,” so.

TB: What is one thing you think people can do to better the efforts around diversity and inclusion?

KPJ: I feel the world will be a lot more diverse if that saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” actually came to reality. It will open a lot of opportunities for others.

TB: What do you want your impact on the world to be?

KPJ: My impact on the world, I just want to be one of those iconic African American people that paid dues to his community, and people in need, and all the above honestly – I’m all for the community.


Kevin Porter Jr. is a professional basketball player for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA G League. Find Kevin on Twitter and Instagram.