ESPN basketball analyst Kendrick Perkins was on the show “First Take” where the topic was on Team USA and their upcoming gold medal game against France at the Paris Olympics Saturday. Perkins gave his stance on the contest and how he is not “worried about it one bit” after USA scraped by to beat Serbia Thursday after being down 17 points at one time.
When looking at the home team in France, the one player that will be a tough stop is sensation Victor Wembanyama, who plays for the San Antonio Spurs in the states, as he stands at seven foot, four inches and is a force on both sides of the ball. However, Perkins believes USA will win with ease and is confident in their big men like Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, and Joel Embiid to neutralize their centers.
“I ain't worried about it one bit,” Perkins said. “Team USA legs are going to be so tired because they going to stand on business here come tomorrow. I'm telling you right now look, Victor Wembayama, is he's gonna be a special talent and in three years do I think he has the capability of being the best player on the floor on both ends? Absolutely. But he's not Jokic and he's had his ups and downs. I think when you look at the bigs that we have in Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid, they're going to do a great job of neutralizing them.”
Kendrick Perkins confident in USA
The other top players on France that Perkins would mention are Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, but is not too scared since the former has seen his paying time down and the latter has to go against such elite defenders as USA's Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.
“The four-time time Defensive Player of the Year is on the sideline averaging 1500 claps a game so they don't even have to worry about him. And when you talk about a guy like Evan Fournier, has he been balling? Yes, he's been doing his thing, but this is when we're going to see the best version of a guy like Jrue Holliday and a guy like Derrick White,” Perkins said.
“I know it's gonna be great energy in that building, I know guys are going to step up for them because they're playing at home. But at the end of the day, Team USA is just too talented across the board, Anthony Edwards is not going to have a game like he had yesterday. He's going to ball out in this game.”
The talent on Team USA has been striking as even with the multitude of lineup changes, some will not play as it has been evident with such stars as Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton and more controversially with Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. Even still, they were easily the heavy favorites to win their fourth consecutive gold medal at the Olympics and have shown their might, even in the last contest against Serbia where they wiped a 17-point lead.
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