Kendrick Perkins played just a single season with the New Orleans Pelicans. He appeared in just 37 games with the team in 2015-16, averaging 2.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in 14.6 minutes off the bench. Despite his brief, ultimately forgettable tenure with the Pelicans, though, Perkins was still happy to see the team's chief decision-maker lose his job.
During an appearance on the Maybe I'm Crazy podcast this week, the retired big man was asked whether he'd ever been part of a franchise as dysfunctional as the Los Angeles Lakers. After initially answering in the negative, Perkins reconsidered, calling out New Orleans and former general manager Dell Demps for an experience with the team he “hated.”
“I've only been a part of four [organizations],” he said. “Boston was great, OKC was absolutely great from top to bottom. Cleveland was good, especially I thought [David Griffin], who the Pelicans just got, he ran their organization at a high level. Now the Pelicans that was ran by Dell Demps? I hated it. I hated it because Dell Demps is a liar. I'd rather you keep it straightforward…I never wish bad on nobody, but that was one guy that it made my day for him to get fired.”
Fortunately for the Pelicans, they're a long way removed from the franchise they were when Kendrick Perkins was playing in New Orleans.
Demps was fired in February amid fallout from Anthony Davis' trade request, replaced by Griffin, one of the most highly-respected executives in the league, in April. Even more importantly, the Pelicans won the draft lottery, giving them the opportunity to select Duke sensation Zion Williamson as they deliberate over Davis' future this summer.