Former NBA center and ESPN personality Kendrick Perkins was feeling himself after sharing an anecdote about the late Kobe Bryant. After honoring the memory of the Los Angeles Lakers great, Perkins soon re-routed to basking in flowers, telling the story of how Bryant once stopped him at a club to tell him he's one of the best post defenders he's ever played against.
“I go to Vegas and I'm sitting outside this spot that I'm ready to go to and enjoy the nightlife and I see three guys walk by me with suits and earplugs and they're walking fast and I'm like ‘damn, that's Secret Service, is the president here?'” Perkins recalled as a guest panelist on ESPN's The Jump.
“Then I feel someone coming from behind and bear-hug me and I'm like ‘hold on, man. What's going on?' — it was Kobe, man. He's like ‘Perk, what's up, boy? — and mind you, this is my first time having a conversation with Kobe — and he was like ‘man, I just wanted to tell you, it's all respect and I tell people this all the time: you're one of the best post defenders that I've ever played against' and I'm like what? I'm sitting back like damn, Kobe just gave me a compliment?”
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1223058288763379713?s=20
The general feeling is that Perkins was just showering himself in praise now that there's no one to dispute that claim, but the former Lakers star has been on the record saying similar things.
“Perk, in my opinion, he is the best one-on-one post defender in the league,” said Bryant in 2008. “He's that good in the low-post and that gives them an added presence. He's also a great help defender and a great screen-and-roll defender. So Boston really gift-wrapped them one.”
https://twitter.com/Nolchocinco/status/1223082156450250752
Bryant saw Perkins' defensive skills first-hand during the 2008 NBA Finals, which the Celtics won in six games. It seems the respect from The Black Mamba was there after all, even if Perkins' stories sound outrageous at times.
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