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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 mind getting into a verbal argument about sports with his colleagues, but video of the AAU game via TMZ Sports shows the 6-foot-10 big man being restrained while yelling at someone not seen in the video.
Perkins coaches his son’s YPG Perkins team and things were getting ugly against his opponent, Swaveway Playaz. However, a non-basketball foul 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, arguing there is no hope for the Americans to regain the league’s top spot over the next decade. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Perkins can be seen yelling at someone, while his team’s coaches pushed him to relieve the tension.
When the video went viral, Perkins responded on social media.
“Damn, and it probably won’t be the last time!” Perkins wrote in X. “I will protect all the children in my organization as if they were my own.”
KENDRICK PERKINS ACCIDENTALLY EXPOSED THE NBA’S BIGGEST PROBLEM DURING ESPN’S ‘FIRST TAKE’
Perkins also addressed the altercation during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he expressed the stance he was trying to protect his players.
“We’re in a tournament; it’s a heated game. 17U, they come and go or whatever,” Perkins said. “We ended up winning the game, all right. The other team had this guy who’s like 7 feet and 400 pounds. After the game, he comes and beats up one of my kids who plays for my team. I sit there and then I get up because everyone’s running. The players, they’re about to fight. So, as a responsible owner of the organization, I get up and, ‘Hey, everyone needs to relax,’ XYZ. I’m grabbing my players. I tell the other team’s coach: ‘Hey brother, bring your players. I’ve got mine.’ He bolts. ‘I’m getting nothing, I’m getting nothing.’
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 fell to the ground, his parents weren’t at the game. So, his parents trusted me with their kid. So, I have to protect that kid like he was my own. I’m going to defend him, even though I didn’t go there with bad intentions, I have to make sure that kid is okay and comes home to his parents. He’s a young man, but again, he plays in my organization. So, I have to 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, helping 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, becoming a starting center for his team.
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins plays during the second quarter of Game 4 of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on 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.
