With the Los Angeles Clippers being on a roll, James Harden decided it was time to fire some shots at his critics. Well, one of them has now responded, as his former teammate Kendrick Perkins called out Harden.
“James Harden talking about it’s hard for the haters to be found, I’m sitting right here,” Perkins said on NBA Today. “I’m too big to hide and I’m not hating. I’m just calling the facts and the fact is that y’all did struggle when you first arrived in Los Angeles. Now y’all playing well, but at the end of the day James, no one cares.”
Perkins made it clear that all that matters is what Harden does in the playoffs.
“We want to see what you do in the postseason,” Perkins said. “You forgot I was your teammate when we went to the NBA finals and we couldn’t find you in the Finals when we lost to the Miami Heat, so we want to see it happen. We did watch you quit on Doc Rivers and the Philadelphia 76ers when y’all should have beat the Boston Celtics last year. We watched when Chris Paul was in Houston and went out with a hamstring injury and you couldn’t finish and close the series.”
It is fair to call out Harden for his postseason meltdowns with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets, but not for what happened with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was just 22 years old when the Thunder made the 2012 NBA Finals and was the Sixth Man on that team.
Harden did not play well, with averages of 12.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.2 steals per game, as the Thunder lost in five games to the Miami Heat. He was just in his third season in the NBA at the time, though, and wasn’t a star either. To call the 34-year-old out for that seems a bit much.
NBA Fans Reacted To Perkins’ Comments
Perkins’ comments generated a ton of buzz on social media. NBA fans reacted to them, with a fair few calling out the former NBA player.
One fan called out Perkins for being a loudmouth, “Quiet NBA career, loud NBA analyst.”
A fan said Perkins didn’t do anything in the Finals either, “Bro didn’t do s*** either, this the battle of the mid-offs.”
One fan came to Perkins’ defense, “Perk never said he was a better player or scorer than Harden. He’s just stating facts about Harden’s career to this point.”
A fan said Perkins always takes shots at his former teammates for clicks, “This dude always talks s*** on his former teammates on TV for clicks.”
One called out Perkins for being nonexistent in those Finals, “Perk was so nonexistent in that finals series we forgot he was his teammate too.”
Perkins averaged 4.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 0.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in the Finals while shooting 42.9% from the field. He never was the kind of player to stuff the stat sheet, and it was inevitable that he’d get called out for making such comments with his underwhelming numbers.
What Did James Harden Say?
As for what exactly led to Perkins making these remarks, it was the comments his former teammate made after the Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns. Harden called out his haters, as the win meant they were 13-2 in their last 15 games.
“Obviously, it didn’t start off well. It gave people so much to talk about in a negative way. And now those people that were talking, they’re nowhere to be found. Like literally nowhere to be found.”
While the 10-time All-Star was talking in a general context for a bit, the last part was really a shot at Brian Dameris, an announcer for the Dallas Mavericks. Dameris had slammed Harden in an astonishing rant earlier this season, but when the Mavs and Clippers faced off last month, he was absent from the studio. Hence, the comment about not finding certain people.
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