Now more than ever, players are being empowered to do what’s best for them, even if it means leaving one home for greener pastures.
Obviously, this type of movement comes at a cost — because not everyone supports some of the moves these guys make. In the case of Kevin Durant and Ray Allen, they practically betrayed their perspective teams for an easier path to a title.
Kendrick Perkins laid on them pretty hard and recently defended his stance on “Pardon My Take.”
“Think about it. When you’re considered a great, okay, what if LeBron James would have went and joined a 73-9 team? “
He went on to defend himself after his infamous Twitter battle with Durant was brought up, the one in which he called his former teammate a “coward.”
“He really got the bets of himself because what ended up happening was that he shouldn’t even come near that day cause it was Russell Westbrook day.
So this has been happening tonight…have the feeling Chauncey Billups & I are gonna have a lot to ask Perk about on #TheJump tomorrow. 📺: 3p ET/12p PT on ESPN pic.twitter.com/b8gLCinivL
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) January 10, 2020
“I don’t know if y’all have time but I know y’all been seeing the videos of the old Celtics days — ’08 Celtics — and stuff like that, right? Did you see the game that they showed last Thursday? Game 5, Eastern Conference against Detroit, where me and KG dominated the Wallace brothers? Before I got to Oklahoma City, I was a pretty good player. But then when you go to a team where two players are takin’ 75 shots out of the 95 shots, it’s kinda hard to average more than five points.”
Then the conversation switched to Ray Allen.
‘The beef with Ray and the Celtics, with us, I don’t have a beef with Ray. The beef was was when I was gone, I was already in Oklahoma City but I never spoke to Ray. KG is my big brother, that’s who I rock with, I don’t have no hard feelings against Ray. But my loyalty is to Kevin Garnett. So, if him and Ray decide to talk then hey, me and Ray can be cool.”
The issue in both these cases was an act of betrayal. Durant and Ray left their Championship-contending team to join an even better one that was competing in the same conference.
While KP’s involvement may be limited, there’s no questioning his loyalty. For the full interview, check out the video below:
