The modern generation of NBA players has often been criticized for focusing way too much on what other people are saying about them. But Kendrick Perkins, the former Celtics player, believes that the criticism that they face is right up there with racism and death threats that players faced in the 1960s, in terms of the test of mental toughness on the court.
While addressing off-court adversity and whether that should factor in while considering the status of the players in the league, the former NBA champion spoke about the social media criticism players face today on the latest episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast.
“Here’s my thing. I would never take what the guys, Bill Russells, and what they had to go through for us to be able to perform at a high level or even be in the NBA, right? For the NBA to even exist. I’m not, I wasn’t there.”
“But I will say everyone’s had their own form of adversity. Back then, it was racism and death threats, right? But having to battle through the adversity of f***ing social media as a player elevates right up into there when you talk about mental toughness.”
“I get it. Like people’s lives were on the line, but like mental health is a real thing. And like we see so many guys logging off of social media, right? John Wall like talked about like how he wanted to commit suicide. Like it’s a real thing.”
“So everybody’s affected differently. I’m not trying to put the two together. All I’m saying is this day and age, a lot of these guys are dealing with their own form of adversity, right?”
“And people could say, ‘Oh, then just stay off of social media.’ Know how f***ing hard it is to stay off of social media?”
Perkins was not trying to be insensitive to Bill Russell or the 1960s era, but he wanted to compare the two generations’ worst forms of adversities. And he is right in terms of saying social media criticism is an adversity and a challenge to a player’s mental health in today’s age.
Social media criticism is a problem that players create for themselves, while racism and death threats are external factors impacting a player. But there is a different moral aspect to this discussion when it comes to the threat of the loss of life, whether on your own or externally, someone is out to get you.
At the end of the day, you are worried for your own life. So I understand what Perkins was trying to say here.
