If you ask NBA fans their thoughts on Kendrick Perkins of the Oklahoma City Thunder, you likely won’t get many favorable opinions.
As a member of the Boston Celtics, Perkins helped the team win the NBA championship in 2008 and was an important enough piece that Rajon Rondo thought his trade to the Thunder in 2011 affected Boston more than it probably should have. Oklahoma City then gave Perkins a $35 million contract extension, one he hasn’t been able to live up to. Since then, Perkins’ production has declined to the point where he hasn’t started any of the Thunder’s seven games this season, losing his spot to Steven Adams.
That hasn’t caused Perkins to think negatively, however. In fact, during Oklahoma City’s game against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, Perkins heard fans chanting “MVP!” for him.
“It felt good. I thought I heard a couple MVP chants,” Perkins said via Daily Thunder’s Royce Young.” I told him I didn’t hear any of those. “Yeah, neither did I. Just in my head.”
The best part of that quote might not be the quote itself, rather the mental picture of Perkins saying it with his familiar scowl.
In Sunday’s game, Kendrick Perkins scored a season-high nine points and played a season-high 25 minutes. Perhaps that will be the springboard to a successful stretch for the veteran big man who will be a free agent next summer. If not, he will always be an MVP in his own mind.
