- [Interviewer] What was this right here?

- That was one of my special nights as the Portland Trailblazers Organization I played for, honored me by retiring my Jersey.

You play sports and you're able to get honored in a way that your body of work is recognized and they appreciated it.

And then you have your family there to share it with you, right?

It's a humbling moment when your honored and in such a way.

That's generational stuff, right?

My grandkids, when I'm an old man barely walking with canes, I can come here, tell them to look up in the rafters and say 'Your grandpa was a baller back in the day'.

(triumphant music) - [Announcer 1] Porter for Williams.

- [Announcer 2] Great pass, Terry Porter.

- Eddie, this is you, you gotta be alert, Eddie.

This is you, let's go.

The reason why I coach is to teach.

Weak side, you gotta drop in and balls away, you can't stay and guard that guy.

This is about life.

Obviously basketball is very important but the lessons you learn in basketball also transfers to life.

Mikey!

You can't get high with him on the baseline!

- [Malcolm] My dad is hard working, competitive.

- Come on, you gotta get him out of lane, he never left.

- Loving, caring, just a great guy.

- Terry never let basketball define himself.

He was a man, a dad, a husband, first.

- I live every day to try to live my life in a purposeful way and be impactful to the people that I come in contact with and provide more opportunities for the next generation.

I'm Terry Porter, and this is my expression.

(car engine running) Is game on the server?

- [Staff] Yeah, I've just uploaded it.

- Oh, perfect.

In sports or in life, there's always lessons.

Two most important men in my life was my dad Herman Porter and my college coach, Dick Bennett.

Both taught me a lot about basketball but also about how to be a man.

That's my dad and my uncle.

He had a work ethic like none other that I've been around and he talked a lot about their willingness to get up and go do what you gotta do.

How to be a strong black man, I think was something that I learned from him in regards to just how to deal with things that you have to deal with growing up black.

Let's go.

Let's go.

- During my recruiting process the number one thing on my list was having a black coach that actually played basketball.

(balls bouncing) Being out here all the way from Chicago and I needed somebody that I could look up to and learn from on a day-to-day basis.

- I know when I went off to college my dad wasn't around a lot and I leaned on my college coach.

You try to mentor these kids.

You try to be there for them.

You become a second parent, a second dad.

- You know, a lot of stuff goes on at home and I find myself in his office many times just having to have a talk and just give me his advice on what I should do, and that's big.

- I would think that anybody who's in a position to be around young men, I hope that's what they're doing.

They're teaching them life skills and life lessons.

- [Announcer 3] Here we are now in 2021, Campus University of Portland and Terry Porter, head coach of the Pilots basketball team now in his fifth season, guiding this group.

- I think in today's world with so much stuff going on, it's about setting an example.

Obviously wins and losses are very important in the process but what example are you providing for them going forward?

I think everybody has to take that individual challenge it's about how you can lift somebody up.

Let's go, come on.

Let's go.

(indistinct chattering) This is a brotherhood.

Basketball has always been that way.

It's a family.

Get after it now, here we go.

Pilots on three.

One two, three, Pilots.

- [Team] Pilots!

- The important thing is there's a respect factor.

Everybody's together.

Everybody knows how to support each other.

Get it!

Go!

(crowd cheering) Get back!

Get back!

You get them as kids and you want to try to provide an opportunity for them to get a degree from this great University of Portland and set them down the road of being successful.

(indistinct chattering) If we're at home and there's a good game on we like to watch it and learn from it.

See the players perform.

- You got to watch the G.O.A.T play?

Come on, man LeBron.

No question.

- One generation versus another generation.

Perspective, that's all.

When I think, back to basketball and what it has provided for me, it provided me to see different parts of the world different parts of the country, To educate me about so many different things, the people I've been able to meet.

When I got in my coaching profession, we made the all-star coaching staff.

I would have never had that opportunity if it wasn't for basketball.

Steve Nash, I coached when I was in Phoenix Shaq, I coached when I was in Phoenix.

Kobe, Tim Duncan who one of the rare cases where I had played with him.

Basketball opened that up for me gave me a chance to come out to Portland, Oregon and I didn't have a clue where Portland Oregon was.

(lilting music) Coming here, first as young people or a young couple growing here from a professional standpoint and then getting into another profession getting into coaching when my playing days were over.

Going to different cities, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Detroit Phoenix, and then at that point we said, okay we gotta figure out what's going to be home for us.

We sat down as a family and everybody had a vote.

And so we thought this was the best spot for us.

They embraced us, embraced me, embraced my family.

That's the beauty of Portland, I think, being willing to accept each other's culture respect each other's backgrounds.

We all know that this world was built because of different people, backgrounds and ethnicities and now how can we get everybody at the table?

- I think one of the things from this year is to not forget all the growing and all the pain that we went through.

It was a wake-up call for so many people that things do need to change.

- From my perspective, it's about trying to be part of the conversation with the purpose of trying to make a change.

- [Announcer] After two decades in the NBA, a trailblazer hall of Famer, Terry Porter knows the game of basketball inside and out, but for these young men, you could not ask for a better leader and a better mentor than Terry Porter.

- One of the things we talk about as coaches to players, be a great leader and help people.

Be impactful, right?

Go find something that you're passionate about.

Use basketball for that vehicle and see if you can impact the world.

(upbeat music)