J.J. Redick took a bold stance against a coworker during an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” Tuesday morning.
Redick pushed back at fellow NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins, who has been pushing a racist narrative. The two men had a disagreement last week after Perkins accused Nikola Jokic of padding his stats. Perkins has also argued that Jokic is favored to win a third NBA MVP award because white media members are supporting the Denver Nuggets center.
At the end of his appearance on Tuesday’s show, Redick addressed matters with Perkins.
JJ Redick condemns First Take and pushes back on Kendrick Perkins alleging NBA MVP voters have a racial bias against Black players: pic.twitter.com/7pOMmGW4AH
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2023
“What we’ve just witnessed is the problem with this show, where we create narratives that do not exist in reality,” Redick said. “What you are implying — that the white voters that vote on the NBA are racist. That they favor white people.”
Perkins then started to interrupt Redick.
“I stated the facts,” a heated Perkins responded.
The two then resolved things later by saying they were good with each other.
Here's the resolution pic.twitter.com/ZZb4Du1MhH
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2023
Perkins has argued that race is the underlying reason why media voters are favoring Jokic rather than the guy he thinks should be NBA MVP — Joel Embiid. Embiid is the second favorite to win NBA MVP according to betting odds, while Jokic is a strong favorite.
Though Embiid (33.2) is averaging more points per game than Jokic (24.4), Jokic is averaging a triple-double and has his Nuggets with the best record in the West.
