Amid plans of a restart, many in the NBA community have expressed their concerns over resuming basketball activities. Though COVID-19 is still a significant threat, players seem to consider it a distraction/hindrance to the Black Lives Matter movement, which has picked up major steam in the weeks since George Floyd’s death.
Kendrick Perkins, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant have been in the thick of a league-wide debate on whether or not to continue the season. With Kyrie being the biggest advocate against the continuation of the 2019-20 NBA campaign, Perk has been speaking out quite strongly against him, saying that his ideas have been ridiculous and that he’s got “no plan” to make things better.
It all came to a head when Durant called Perk a “sellout” on Instagram. In an appearance on First Take, Stephen A. Smith responded to it as Perkins wiped away tears.
“Kendrick Perkins, welcome to the party, my brother, because I’ve been called that name on many, many occasions,” said Smith. “I’d like to go about the business of re-educating a whole bunch of black folks out there as to exactly what a sellout is.
“A sellout is a very disparaging label handed down to a black person who is believed to be operating against the best interest of his own community as a whole. So when people say this kind of stuff, a lot of times I’m looking at them like ‘what the hell are you talking about? Do you even know what it means.’”
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1274010586528067584
“I was one of the first ones to call out the NBA owners about speaking out and taking action about what’s going on in America followed up by am hour-and-a-half-long phone conversation with Danny Ainge. So don’t tell me nothing about being a sellout.”
An emotional Kendrick Perkins responds to Kevin Durant calling him a sell out pic.twitter.com/4xmrC1sE5y
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 19, 2020
Perk recently followed up his message with a Tweet.
On Juneteenth or any other day am I gonna use my platform to tear my brother down, but being called a sell out is serious business! I’m in this fight as much as anybody else and my record speaks for itself! I Cleanse My Soul today. Carry on… https://t.co/73EAhUzX4b
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) June 19, 2020
To KP’s credit, he has stood with the BLM movement. Unfortunately, it seems he went overboard with his criticism of Kyrie. He recently called Irving out for his “lack of leadership,” and used all kinds of expletives to express his feelings towards Uncle Drew.
Whatever Perks message is, it’s getting lost in all of this beef with Kyrie and Durant.
