Kendrick Perkins has never been one to bite his tongue, but his outspoken nature may have cost him another friendship. On a recent episode of the Out The Mud podcast, the former NBA big man revealed that he received a lengthy, fiery message from Nina Westbrook, wife of Russell Westbrook, after making comments about the former MVP’s career decline.
“I don’t even say nothing that crazy. I’m just like, hey man, Russ got to be careful. Nah, I didn’t lie because you got to think, Russ went from making 60 plus million to all of a sudden we started seeing Russ on that three, four million a year.”
“Right after that. I get a text from Russ’ wife. So as I get off, I look, I’m like, damn. His wife, not him. I mean that b***h like six paragraphs. She texted me so much, that s**t wasn’t even in the text form no more. That s**t had broken up into like pages.”
“So I get to reading. I’m like, oh s**t. I never thought it would be you to turn. And I’m like, oh damn. Like yeah, like that type of time. So I’m like, I want to, after I get through reading it, I’m like, I want to respond, but I can’t respond to no woman.”
“So now my old lady, my old lady then jumped in. She a firecracker. ‘Girl, you got me f***ed up. Who the f**k you?” So now the s**t then went all the way left. Cause she done jumped in and now she on some like, nah, we ain’t on that. You ain’t about to be, he ain’t even say nothing. I just watch cause my old lady, she really my biggest critic when I do s**t. And she feel like I’m out of bounds, and she feel like, oh, I’m a f**k up a relationship, cause she got relationships. So she jumped, she jumped. And then right then I already knew.”
“But I’m still cool. The crazy thing is like, I’m still cool with mama Westbrook, OG Westbrook. That’s my dawg.”
The fallout stems from comments Perkins made earlier this year when he claimed Westbrook was being ‘blackballed’ by the league. On Road Trippin’, he expressed disappointment that the 2017 MVP was still unsigned at the start of training camp.
“Do we realize training camp started, and Russell Westbrook is not on a roster?”
Nina Westbrook reportedly took offense to what she viewed as a betrayal. It wasn’t the first time she’s defended her husband publicly. Back in 2023, when an ESPN report labeled Westbrook a ‘vampire in the Lakers’ locker room,’ she fired back at the network for ‘pushing false narratives.’
Russell Westbrook, who was once one of the NBA’s highest-paid players, now plays for the Sacramento Kings on a one-year, $3.6 million deal, a far cry from the $44 million salary he earned with the Lakers in 2021-22. His career has gone through rough patches since his turbulent Los Angeles stint, though he’s carved out a role as a veteran leader in Sacramento.
For Perkins, the whole ordeal was a reminder of the delicate line between analyst and friend.
