Metro

Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. didn’t break WNBA player girlfriend’s neck, NYC prosecutors say while dropping charge

Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. didn’t break his girlfriend’s neck during an alleged fight at their hotel, Manhattan prosecutors admitted in court Monday — as they said they’d drop one of the assault charges against him.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mirah Curzer said the office was tossing the charge of second-degree assault against Porter, 23, because of “insufficient evidence,” after it was revealed that the NBA player didn’t actually break girlfriend Kysre Gondrezick’s neck.

“What initially appeared to be a fractured vertebrae was not in fact an injury caused by the defendant,” Curzer told Judge Jay Weiner during Porter’s hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Prosecutors initially said the savage Midtown hotel beatdown on Sept. 11 left Gondrezick — a former WNBA player — with a fractured vertebra.

But documents reviewed by The Post showed the fracture was actually a congenital defect and did not come from the row.

Prosecutors Monday dropped a second-degree assault charge against Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr.
Steven Hirsch

Weiner agreed to drop the charge, but warned Porter — who was dressed casually in a white track jacket, jeans and sneakers — to stay out of any further physical altercations with Gondrezick, 26.

“I don’t know what your relationship is with the complainant,” the judge said. “But if things get heated, you have to be the one who walks away.”

The pro baller — whose full name is Bryan Kevin Porter Jr. — still faces charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault.

He would still face a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars, if convicted on the strangulation charge.

Prosecutors said they learned that a vertebrae fracture in girlfriend Kyrse Gondrezick’s neck wasn’t from Porter’s alleged attack.
Getty Images for Vogue
The former WNBA player had a fracture in her neck that was a birth defect and not from the fight with Porter.
NBAE via Getty Images

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office offered a plea deal on the lower third-degree assault charge — with the condition that Porter undergo counseling — but he rejected the offer, Curzer told the judge.

Porter, who lives in Texas, has been free on $75,000 bail.

The NBA star and his girlfriend had been staying at the Millennium Hilton New York at 1 UN Plaza when Porter allegedly relentlessly hit her and choked her until she couldn’t breathe.

Porter was warned by the judge to avoid any physical confrontations.
Steven Hirsch

Gondrezick — who used to play for the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky — fled the room and was found by a hotel employee in the hallway, prosecutors have said.

The Rockets are trying to trade Porter and said he wouldn’t be with the team as they start training camp and the preseason in light of his arrest.

Porter is due back in court on Nov. 27.