Kendrick Perkins and JJ Redick seem to be torn on another issue affecting the NBA, this time the coverage of Kevin Durant. JJ Redick took to his podcast Old Man & The Three to criticize how Kevin Durant is perceived in the media, believing that he should be more celebrated for his greatness on the basketball court.
He said during his recent interview with Devin Booker, “I think whatever happens for the rest of Kevin Durant’s career, we’re going to look back in like 10 or 15 years and be like, Why the f*ck did we spend all this time with all the bullsh*t discourse and not just appreciate literally one of the greatest basketball players to ever play this game? And by the way, we’re going to keep this in the podcast and there’ll be a million f*cking comments on YouTube about why I’m wrong and why he shouldn’t have left Oklahoma City or blah blah. Who f*cking cares? He’s literally one of the greatest players ever, and we spend too much time on the bullsh*t instead of just appreciating his f*cking night-to-night greatness.”
Thus far, Kendrick Perkins has appeared on both Get Up and First Take to express his opposition to the point that was raised by Redick. During his appearance on Get Up, he said, ”
“You know that J. J. Redick, every month, like once a month, he’s gonna go on these cute, adorable rants, okay? And majority of the time, he’s right and he’s on point. This time, it was a reach and he’s wrong. First of all, KD doesn’t even fit in that box. We’re talking about an all-time great. We’re talking Guys have acknowledged that right now KD is a top 20 all time great.That’s not being underappreciated.”
Perkins then went on to give examples of players that he believes are actually being underappreciated.
“When you talk about guys that are underappreciated. It is guys that fit the criteria like a DeMar DeRozan, who we don’t talk about enough, one of the, like, elite scorers to ever play the game. Like a Rudy Gobert, who is gonna be in the Hall of Fame, who’s on the verge of winning his fourth defensive player of the year, but still don’t get the acknowledgement that he’s supposed to get, especially from his peers.”
Perkins punctuated his comments by saying, “That was a horrible take by JJ.”
Kendrick Perkins’s odd media history with KD
While Perkins has a point that many talented players in the NBA don’t get a lot of credit because of the media’s hyper-fixation on star players and often hyperbolic and hypothetical topics, Perkins very well could’ve felt offended by Redick’s comments as he has continuously questioned the leadership of Kevin Durant. He’s made these comments about Durant for years but he has recently broached the topic again in the past month.
Durant spoke of his leadership in an interview with his agent Rich Kleiman in February on his platform The Boardroom, saying, “I don’t feel like I want people to call me a leader, but I also don’t want people to say I’m not one either, because they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes of what I talk about or my intentions or relationships that I’ve built with my teammates and my support staff,”
The comments caused Perkins to speak against Durant’s leadership on the March 3rd edition of NBA Countdown.
“I actually played with the guy, too. I mean, I played with him, so I mean, again, is Kevin Durant going to come in and punch in the clock and be a gym rat? Absolutely. Is he going to be a guy that’s going to voice his opinion in the locker room and hold a guy accountable? He’s not that guy. And I don’t know any championship team that has ever wanted that, hasn’t had a vocal leader in the locker room, right? That’s going to lead, being an extension of the coach, hold guys accountable, and do everything that you need to do.”
The comments reflect Perkins’ feelings towards Durant and his leadership in the media. Redick and Perkins seem to be gearing up for another clash, likely on First Take, to discuss their differing views. Yet, both sides have valid points to consider.
