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Former NBA center and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins was involved in an altercation at one of his son’s recent AAU basketball games in Norman, Oklahoma.
Perkins is known on screen as someone who doesn’t bother to have a verbal argument about sports with his teammates, but a video from the AAU game via TMZ Sports shows the 6-foot-10 man being restrained as he screamed at someone not seen in the video.
Perkins is coaching his son’s YPG Perkins team, and things started to get shaky against their opponent, the Swaveway Playaz. However, a non-basketball mistake sent the 2008 NBA champion over the edge.
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ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins says international players have “completely taken over” the NBA and claims there is no hope for the Americans to regain the league’s top spot in the next decade. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Perkins can be seen yelling at someone as trainers on his team pushed him away to ease the tension.
When the video went viral, Perkins responded to it on social media.
“Damn right, and it probably won’t be the last time!” Perkins wrote on X. “I will protect every single child in my organization as if they were my own.”
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Perkins also addressed the altercation during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he took the stand that he was trying to protect his players.
“We’re in a tournament; it’s a heated game. 17U, they go back and forth or whatever,” Perkins said. “We end up winning the game, okay cool. The other team, they had a guy who’s like 7-foot, 400 pounds. After the game, he comes and he slaps one of my kids who plays for my team. I’m sitting down and then I get up because everybody’s running around. The players, they’re about to fight. chill,’ XYZ I grab my players. He jumps off. ‘I’m not getting anything, I’m not getting anything. Who the hell are you.’
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins reacts in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on April 11, 2018. (David Richard/USA TODAY Sports)
“The kid that got slammed to the ground, his parents weren’t at the fight. So his parents trusted me with their kid. So I have to protect that kid like he’s mine. I’m going to stand up for him, even if I didn’t go over there with bad intentions, I’m going to make sure that kid is okay and he’s coming home to his parents, but he’s got to reorganize. make sure, by any means necessary, that he’s safe.”
Before Perkins was on the air talking about the NBA, the Texas native played 14 seasons in the league and helped the Boston Celtics win the 2008 title.
He spent eight of those seasons in Boston, averaging 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, developing into a starting center for his team.
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins plays during the second quarter of game four of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, June 8, 2018. The Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 108-85 to complete a four-game sweep. (Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports)
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During the 2010–11 season, Perkins was traded from the Celtics to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he spent five seasons. He also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans before retiring from the league.
