Kendrick Perkins made headlines on Thursday, getting into a nasty argument with former teammate Kevin Durant while defending his original take, calling Russell Westbrook the best player to suit up for the Oklahoma City Thunder, doing so during his homecoming on Thursday night.
Perk's hot take wasn't taken well by Celtics analyst Marc D'Amico, who questioned it by saying Durant was the best player to wear a Thunder jersey.
So this has been happening tonight…have the feeling Chauncey Billups & I are gonna have a lot to ask Perk about on #TheJump tomorrow. 📺: 3p ET/12p PT on ESPN pic.twitter.com/b8gLCinivL
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) January 10, 2020
On Friday morning, Perkins joined former Celtic Brian Scalabrine on Radio.com's Scal and Pals, clarifying his comments about Westbrook and throwing even more fuel to the fire in regards to Durant, doubling down on his previous statement.
“Clearly, I’m not saying that Russell Westbrook is a better player than Kevin Durant. I’m saying that when you talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder: Russell Westbrook is Mr. Thunder,” said Perkins, who then moved to Durant.
“I don't have a filter. So what I do, is I strike back. Boy, stop playing with me. You did the weakest move in NBA history, up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals and then you go join them the following season.”
Perkins ensured to say Durant shouldn't have chimed into that conversation, to begin with, even if it was his name that was being brought up.
“That was my whole point – why do you even care?,” said Perkins. “First of all, you left that organization for dead. You thought when you left that organization that it would go to nothing. And Russell Westbrook kept that organization afloat… he never missed the playoffs… he always kept them in the middle of the hunt… he did what he was supposed to do… he won the MVP… he did all types of things.
“So, like I said, my whole argument wasn't to shoot a slug at KD, my whole argument was to rightfully praise Russell Westbrook for what he deserves.”
But Perkins did “shoot a slug” at Durant and even doubled down on his intent in this recent radio appearance — something he's likely to address again as a panelist on ESPN's NBA show The Jump when he joins fellow analyst Chauncey Billups and host Rachel Nichols.
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith criticized Perkins for the way he went about his feud with Durant, claiming it looks poorly for a former player to turn on another who was once his teammate, even if he does have strong feelings about his departure to Golden State.
For the record, Perkins was a member of the New Orleans Pelicans that 2015-16 season, as he was traded by the Thunder prior to the 2015 NBA trade deadline, then consequently waived by the Utah Jazz two days later.
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