Kendrick Perkins tends to have absolutely no filter on his mouth when he’s on camera and it leads to many unintentionally hilarious moments. Perk speaks his mind and isn’t one to worry too much about what he says on record. It has gotten him into trouble with some NBA players like Draymond Green, but that’s not going to stop him from being himself on screen.
He was recently on The Old Man & the Three Podcast with JJ Redick and while the interview was quite interesting in general, one segment raised some eyebrows when Perkins admitted that he was terrified of facing LeBron James in Game 7 of the 2008 playoffs.
“We played the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008 and it was a Game 7 right. We had just lost Game 6 and I ain’t gonna lie man, I was scared as hell going into that Game 7 against LeBron James. This was the only time that I actually prayed that something happened to him at practice. I was like let us get breaking news that LeBron has tore his ACL or something.”
Only Perkins would admit something like this on record and while saying he was terrified of LeBron is one thing, admitting that he wished LeBron tore his ACL is wild. We’re sure LeBron wasn’t too happy to hear something like this and we are grateful that Perk’s wishes weren’t fulfilled.
He was right to be scared of the King as LeBron dropped 45 points on the Celtics in that Game 7, but they still managed to pull off the victory, as only one other Cavalier scored in double digits. LeBron wasn’t actually able to get past those Celtics and their Big 3 until he formed his own Big 3 with the Miami Heat in 2010, after which he eliminated them in 2011 & 2012. The King and Perk would actually end up being teammates with the Cavs years down the line in 2015, but we doubt he ever admitted his wish from 2008 during their time together back then.
