Key Takeaways
- Michael Porter Jr. confirmed he met the woman pictured with him in Taiwan but said he still does not know whether she was transgender.
- Porter said she contacted him on Instagram, they spent about an hour together while communicating through Google Translate, and the viral speculation caught him completely off guard.
- He and Jason Lee also discussed disclosure before intimacy, agreeing that informed consent matters while acknowledging the safety risks transgender women can face.
Michael Porter Jr. is finally addressing the viral photo that linked him to a transgender model in Taiwan—and says he still doesn’t know, or care, whether the woman he met was transgender.
During an appearance on the Curious Mike podcast with Jason Lee, the Brooklyn Nets forward discussed a years-old encounter that resurfaced online in 2025. Porter said he was in Taiwan for appearances when a woman contacted him through Instagram. The two eventually met and communicated largely through Google Translate because they did not speak the same language.
“I’ve never acknowledged this, but I feel like this might be the episode to acknowledge it,” Porter said.
According to Porter, the two spent roughly an hour together before someone photographed them. He said he thought little of the encounter until years later, when friends began telling him the image had gone viral overseas and people were identifying the woman as transgender.
“I had no—I don’t even know who this woman was,” Porter said. “And I don’t know if she was a transgender woman. We never got that far into speaking.”
The speculation dates back to reports published in July 2025 involving Taiwanese model and influencer Xiao A La, who publicly documented her gender-affirming surgery in 2020.
At the time, Taiwanese media reported that Xiao had been seen with a very tall American basketball player at a luxury hotel several years earlier. She reportedly said the man had contacted her through Instagram and that they relied on a phone translator while spending time together.
A blurred photo eventually led social media users to speculate that the player was Porter, who traveled to Taiwan in September 2023. At the time, however, no one independently confirmed the player’s identity.
Porter’s new comments appear to be his first direct acknowledgment of the story. “When that story came out, it caught me completely off guard,” he told Lee. “I had no idea. And I still don’t think that the woman that I was kicking it with was transgender to this day.”
The conversation then broadened into whether transgender people should disclose their gender history before a romantic or sexual encounter becomes intimate.
Porter asked Lee whether someone should be expected to disclose that information beforehand, saying advances in gender-affirming procedures can make assumptions about a person’s history unreliable.
Lee said people have a right to make informed decisions about intimate relationships but emphasized that disclosure can carry serious safety risks for transgender women. He suggested that such conversations should happen once mutual romantic interest is established and, when necessary, in a setting where the transgender person feels safe.
Porter agreed with that distinction.
Porter Jr.’s dating life has repeatedly made headlines. Earlier this year, former girlfriend Madison Pettis called him a “psychopath” while discussing why their relationship ended before he entered the NBA. Porter has also publicly discussed using controversial conversations to evaluate prospective partners.
He was more dismissive of the reaction to the Taiwan photo itself.
“My homies are hitting me up like, ‘Yo, this is what you’re on,’” Porter recalled. “And I’m like, ‘I had no idea.’ I still don’t care.”
