The Kendrick Perkins-Kevin Durant beef was incredibly heated during the year 2020 and things even got emotional when the former player-turned-analyst was called out by his former teammate and friend. KP has been very vocal with his opinions regardless of how controversial they can be and when he claimed Russell Westbrook was the greatest player to don the Oklahoma City Thunder jersey, everything fell apart between him and Durantula.
They engaged in Twitter battles, with KD recalling how Perkins used to average 2 points per game and Perkins reminding KD that he joined the team that beat him in the playoffs. That was the beginning of it and after that, the 2x NBA champion didn’t talk with Perkins. He then would take shots at Perkins on Twitter, again, calling him a “sell-out” for attacking Kyrie Irving.
Perkins was brought to tears on live TV by those comments when the feud reached its highest point. In the following months, he changed his stance on the greatest Thunder player of all-time, giving the honor to Kevin Durant and now, he’s changed again. During a recent appearance on Showtime’s All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Perkins once again talked about that matter again.
An emotional Kendrick Perkins responds to Kevin Durant calling him a sell out pic.twitter.com/4xmrC1sE5y
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 19, 2020
This time, he picked Westbrook again, explaining that is the reason why Durant is mad at him. At the 28:02 mark of the interview, the 2008 NBA champion opened up about his relationship with KD.
“Like the issue you know, where he (Durant) thought I was disrespecting him by saying that Russell Westbrook was the greatest of all time for us as the greatest Thunder. Now, this is what I’m trying to explain the KD just because you’re the greatest player doesn’t mean that you’re the best player they ever put on the Thunder uniform.”
Moreover, he explained why he went with Westbrook instead of Durant, pointing out that KD lost that honor when he chose to join the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016.
“KD, you left that door open. When you chose to go to Golden State. You took the praise when you want to go to state, you got to be able to take the heat when you left. Okay? See, they don’t love you like they love Russ and a lot of people agree to that, Russ leads that team and every statistical category. And when I say that on that day, I was actually saying that because Russ was returning back to OKC. And I said, Look, roll the red carpet out for him. He’s the greatest Thunder of all time, in my opinion. He stood there. He embraced the moment and he capitalized on.”
It’s unclear if they’ll ever get in touch again but KD doesn’t seem to be bothered by that. Even other players like Blake Griffin sided with the 2014 NBA MVP, saying that Perkins was always criticizing him despite having shared the court in OKC. Well, Perkins is not backing down now and he’s convinced that Brodie is the greatest Oklahoma City Thunder of all time, not Kevin Durant.
