If Kendrick Perkins is looking to go viral for making absolutely ridiculous comments, he is succeeding.
Perkins, a former NBA center who is now an analyst for ESPN, has been critical of Giannis Antetokounmpo. He described Giannis as more of a “Robin” with Khris Middleton operating as the “Batman” for the Milwaukee Bucks this postseason. Perkins says that Antetokounmpo has lacked a “Batman” mentality, meaning he is not trying to take over and dominate. Instead, he believes Giannis has been content letting Middleton take over.
The comments are silly.
Giannis is an awesome player, but nobody can carry a team by themselves. Kobe needed Shaq and then Pau Gasol to win. LeBron James needed multiple All-Stars surrounding him in Miami, Cleveland and LA to win. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. So ripping someone for entrusting a talented teammate is silly. The comment looks even worse when Giannis, a week after suffering a knee injury, scores over 40 points in consecutive games during the NBA Finals.
Giannis’ Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns 120-100 in Game 3 on Sunday night, completely reshaping the way the NBA Finals now look. And Perkins was actually complimentary of Antetokounmpo after the game.
But now you can understand why another NBA player has called Perkins a “clown.”
The Portland Trail Blazers held the Denver Nuggets to just 95 points on Saturday night, which may have come as a shock to Kendrick Perkins. Jusuf Nurkic was more than happy to rub it in Perkins’ face.
After the Nuggets beat Portland in Game 3 on Thursday night, Perkins tweeted that Nurkic and Enes Kanter are the two worst defensive big men in the NBA.
Portland’s win on Saturday tied the series at 2-2. Nurkic had 17 points, six rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal. When speaking with the media after the game, he referenced the “clowns” who called him one of the worst defensive bigs in the year. He then went right at Perkins.
Perkins was known as a solid defender during his NBA career. He was instrumental in helping the Boston Celtics win a championship in 2008, but he makes more headlines with his hot takes as an ESPN analyst than he did while he was playing.
Kanter knows all about having public disagreements with Perkins.
Photo: Frenchieinportland/Wikimedia via CC-by-SA-4.0
The New York Knicks drafted Obi Toppin with the No. 8 overall pick in Wednesday night’s NBA Draft, and many people feel they got a great value with the former Dayton star that far down the board. As far as Kendrick Perkins is concerned, Toppin was a steal.
Perkins said on ESPN’s “First Take” Thursday morning that drafting Toppin was the best thing the Knicks have done in a decade. He strongly believes Toppin can help rescue one of the most tortured franchises in sports.
“This is the best thing the New York Knicks have done in the last 10 years. He’s electrifying. He’s box office. He reminds me a lot of Blake Griffin when he was coming out,” Perkins said. “He’s gonna fill up seats. He’s must-see TV. He led college with 107 dunks last year and I’m not talking about Kendrick Perkins-type dunks — little one-hand and two-hand flushes. I’m talking about between the legs, windmilling and all. And he can stretch the floor. He’s ferocious and he’s ready.”
There has been some talk about the Knicks potentially making a big trade for a player like Russell Westbrook. If that happens, Perkins thinks Knicks fans should get their popcorn ready.
“New York fans, y’all have something to be proud about and be happy about,” Perkins said of Toppin. “You can get the popcorn popping again back in Madison Square Garden. If the Knicks can pull off a trade for Russell Westbrook, you might as well add the butter to the popcorn. I’m all-in with Obi Toppin to the New York Knicks. I think they hit a home run.”
Perkins went on to call Toppin “a dog” and say he feels the Knicks won the draft by getting him. In a draft that was not considered all that deep, the claim is not as wild as it sounds.
Toppin was National Player of the Year at Dayton and averaged 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore last season. He made an impressive 63.3 percent of his field goals. There are questions about his defense, but one NBA star went out of his way to praise Toppin after the Knicks took him.
While few are higher on Toppin than Perkins, the general consensus seems to be that the Knicks made a smart pick at No. 8.
Lou Williams fired back Monday after being criticized by Kendrick Perkins for visiting a strip club while out of the NBA bubble.
Perkins urged Williams to “do better” on Monday’s edition of “Get Up!” after the veteran guard was caught at a strip club while outside of the NBA bubble due to a death in the family. Perkins added that it was disappointing to see rookie Zion Williamson handle himself more professionally than Williams, a veteran, after Williamson left the bubble for similar reasons and followed protocol.
Williams wasn’t interested in hearing it, firing back at Perkins on Twitter.
Williams, for the record, has made it pretty clear that he’s a huge fan of the wings. He’s maintained that was the only reason why he was at the club, and it had nothing to do with him partying or being irresponsible. In this case, his love of those wings means he’ll have to spend ten days in quarantine.
Perkins has really embraced his role as an analyst and commentator. This isn’t the first time he’s clashed with a current player over something he said on TV.
Kevin Durant still has some hard feelings towards Kendrick Perkins.
Perkins, a former NBA center and teammate of Durant, was on ESPN’s “Get Up” Wednesday to talk about the Kyrie Irving situation. Irving has been working against the NBA’s return to Orlando.
Perkins called Irving a “distraction” over the matter.
Durant is Irving’s friend and Brooklyn Nets teammate. He called Perkins a “sell out” in an Instagram comment and retweeted a video of Perkins airballing a shot during his Oklahoma City Thunder playing days.
Perkins has become known as a hyperbolic commentator since retiring, which is part of the reason why he gets a platform for sharing his commentary. He and Durant have had other beefs play out in recent years, but Perkins said a few months ago that he wanted to resolve things with his old teammate.
Apparently things aren’t resolved between them just yet, well, not since Perkins’ comments about Irving at least.
Kyrie Irving has faced a lot of criticism for his ideas about canceling the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season, but few have been more animated in opposing Irving than Kendrick Perkins.
During an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up!” Wednesday morning, Perkins ripped Irving for being “confused” and showing poor leadership. Perkins also said it is ironic that Irving thinks continuing the NBA season would take attention away from social justice movements.
“Kyrie Irving, right now you are the distraction. You’re distracting the whole situation,” Perkins said. “It’s crazy to me because you come out and do something separately, without talking to your (NBPA) president Chris Paul or consulting with Michele Roberts and go off and do something totally different and get a group of guys together and say, ‘Let’s sit out.’ It makes zero sense and I totally disagree with Kyrie Irving.”
Perkins also said he feels Irving is “confused” and doesn’t know what he wants.
Irving, of course, will not be playing again this season because of an injury. Perkins took to Twitter recently to question why Irving suddenly no longer wants there to be an NBA season when not that long ago he was trying to travel to Orlando to support his teammates. Former NBA player Matt Barnes said Tuesday that he was told Irving only wanted the season to be canceled after the NBA informed him he will not be allowed to join the Nets in Orlando.
The drama with Irving is building by the day. A report on Tuesday indicated that Irving, in a group chat with his Nets teammates, suggested the idea of starting a new basketball league. Some Brooklyn players dismissed the report as fake news, but Irving seemed furious that it leaked out.
Jayson Tatum is still only 22 years old, and one former Boston Celtics player thinks that a Most Valuable Player Award is in his future.
Retired big man Kendrick Perkins took to Twitter on Sunday to say that Tatum would win NBA MVP someday. Perkins also added that the young forward should play his entire career with the Celtics. He even tagged general manager Danny Ainge in the tweet.
Perkins, a starter on the Celtics’ 2007-08 championship team, is probably not too far off. Tatum, who was averaging 23.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season, already has a very mature offensive game with excellent footwork and borderline-elite three-point shooting at 6-foot-8.
Former Celtics are not always the best predictors of future MVP winners. But if Tatum is already this good in Year 3, MVP honors are not too far-fetched some time in the next decade or so.
There has been tension over the years among the 2008 Boston Celtics mostly centering around Ray Allen.
Allen left the Celtics to sign with the rival Miami Heat after the 2011-2012 season, which upset many of his former teammates. Kevin Garnett said at the time that he lost Allen’s phone number. KG still has hard feelings towards Allen over it.
Rajon Rondo is the other former Celtic who has had beef with Allen. Rondo said Allen wasn’t invited to the team’s 10-year anniversary celebration of the 2008 championship. Rondo also took a shot at Allen over the shooting guard’s book.
So why does Rondo hate Allen, aside from Ray leaving for Miami? According to former Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, it’s because Rondo found out that Allen supported Boston trading Rondo for Chris Paul.
Perkins shared the story on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
“It was brought to the table, ‘what if we trade Rondo and get CP?’ And KG and Paul (Pierce) were like, ‘no, we ain’t doing that. As great as CP is, we just won the championship. We’re rocking with [Rondo].’ Ray was like, ‘nah, let’s do it.’ And what happened was Rondo ended up finding out about it, and that was it from there,” Perkins said.
“It was even to the point we brought boxing gloves to the gym and we made them box it out.”
Rondo and Allen remained teammates for a few more seasons even after that, but obviously tension continued, and Rondo still was holding a grudge towards Allen a decade later. This story from Perkins helps explain why.
Kendrick Perkins says the beef he had with Kevin Durant is over.
Perkins and Durant were teammates on the Oklahoma City Thunder for parts of four seasons, including the team’s NBA Finals run in 2011-2012. But things turned this year after Perkins described Durant’s choice to join the Golden State Warriors as cowardly. Durant fired back at him, and a beef seemingly was on. But Perkins says things are good between them now.
Perk appeared on “Pardon My Take” for an interview and discussed Durant’s choice to join the Brooklyn Nets. Perkins says he would have joined the Knicks if he were Durant, but he’s fine with the choice his ex-teammate made.
“But either way, I’m happy for him. Me and Kev, we’re alright. We good peoples. We don’t have no beef,” Perkins said. “I just hope he gets healthy — which I think he is — and I have him picked to win the MVP.”
Why does Perkins believe KD will win MVP when he returns? Perkins believes not being healthy is “killing” Durant.
And while he no longer has a beef with Durant — something he tried to work out after Kobe Bryant’s death — Perkins says he still has time to talk with the trolls if they want to argue.
“It’s whoever want the smoke, because I got the time. If they want the smoke, I’m bringing the fire.”
As for Durant, he hasn’t played this season as he’s recovered from his torn Achilles, and he’s probably not returning even though this season has had a delay.
Joel Embiid had his best performance of the season on Monday night when he dominated the Atlanta Hawks, but former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins is not impressed with anything he has seen from Embiid or the Philadelphia 76ers.
Embiid looked like he was on a mission in Philly’s 129-112 win, scoring a season-high 49 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in 36 minutes. He showed how capable he is of taking over a game by going 17-of-24 from the floor and 14-of-15 from the free throw line. While Sixers fans certainly enjoyed it, Perkins called out Embiid during ESPN’s “Get Up!” on Tuesday for being “all hyped up because he dominated the worst team in the league.”
The Hawks have just 17 wins on the season and are the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference, in front of only the Cleveland Cavaliers. Perkins questioned why Embiid did not show the same type of energy in Saturday’s loss to the East-leading Milwaukee Bucks, when Embiid had 17 points on 5-of-17 shooting.
“To me, Joel Embiid and the 76ers are frontrunners,” Perkins said. “They’re a tight contender at home, but on the road they’re a lottery team.”
Perkins isn’t exactly going out on a limb. The 76ers are 27-2 this season at home and 9-20 on the road. That inconsistency could be a huge problem for them in the postseason, especially if they don’t earn one of the top four seeds. They entered Tuesday as the No. 5 seed in the East.
Perkins has carved out a nice career for himself as an analyst by not being afraid to rip on star players, but he’s right that the 76ers need to show they can beat good teams on the road. That doesn’t mean Embiid should avoid beating his chest over a 49-point performance, but the Sixers would be in much better shape if he could find that next gear against playoff teams.
