A hot take about Giannis Antetokounmpo ended up escalating into something else entirely for Kendrick Perkins.
The ESPN analyst Perkins appeared this week on the “Road Trippin'” podcast with former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Channing Frye. During the appearance, Perkins revealed that he once got death threats for some comments that he made about the Milwaukee Bucks star Antetokounmpo.
During the 2021 NBA Finals between the Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, Perkins (who was already working for ESPN at the time) gave his opinion on the air that Antetokounmpo was the “Robin” to Milwaukee teammate Khris Middleton’s “Batman.” That apparently prompted an individual to send death threats to both Perkins and his family.
“I started getting a death threat,” Perkins said during the podcast, per ClutchPoints. “It was going to my wife’s account. This dude was sending me threat after threat. ‘I am going to kill your kids. I know where you stay. I am going to murder you.’ This was real life.”
Perkins said that the situation was serious enough that he informed ESPN about the death threats. According to Perkins, the network then investigated the threats, identified the individual behind them, and had him arrested.
The Bucks went on to win the NBA Finals over the Suns that year in six games. Antetokounmpo also ended up winning Finals MVP, thanks in large part to a monster 50-point outing in the Game 6 clincher.
As for Perkins, he has not at all been deterred from doing his pot-stirring on television, even up to this day. Earlier this summer, Perkins drew attention with his ironic opinion about another Eastern Conference star player.
