ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins tends to come under fire for his takes every now and then, and he was put on blast online for his comments about Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic on First Take on Thursday. Perkins was fact-checked after claiming Doncic is entering Joel Embiid territory after he missed the Lakers’ entire 2026 postseason run with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain.
It was a bizarre comment, and Perkins has now walked it back on the latest episode of his Road Trippin’ Show.
“I was tripping,” Perkins said. “If I could have went back and took it back with the Joel Embiid territory, I would have took it back. But other than that, I wouldn’t have took nothing else back.”
Perkins revealed Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy, had called him a day earlier. These two are good friends, and co-host Allie Clifton asked him if Duffy forgave him for the Embiid comment. Perkins stated his voting for Doncic for the All-NBA First Team was forgiveness enough.
It’s not often we get Perkins admitting he made a mistake. Saying Doncic was becoming as unreliable as Embiid was just flat-out wrong, though. The Philadelphia 76ers superstar has made the playoffs eight times in his career and missed at least one game in six of those postseason runs.
As for Doncic, he had missed games in just one of his five playoff runs prior to this season. The Slovenian was out for the first three games of the Dallas Mavericks‘ first-round series against the Utah Jazz in 2022 with a calf strain.
While Perkins admits he got that wrong, he is standing by the rest of what he said. The 41-year-old had been asked on First Take if the bigger priority for the Lakers this offseason should be appeasing Doncic or doing right by LeBron James. Perkins isn’t changing his pick.
“I said I trusted LeBron James ’cause I know when it come postseason time that LeBron James is going to be healthy and he’s going to be available,” Perkins said. “… I didn’t say [Doncic] missed games. I said when it mattered the most, he was never 100%. He was always 70%. He was always battling injuries.
“They traded Luka away because the Boston Celtics exposed him,” Perkins continued. “Because, although he got to the finals, the Celtics made them look like it was levels to this s*** when it comes to conditioning.”
Doncic was dealing with knee, ankle, and chest issues during the 2024 playoffs when he led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals. Perkins thinks conditioning played a part in the six-time All-Star being hobbled as the Boston Celtics beat them in five games. He then brought up Mavericks assistant GM Michael Finley snatching a can of beer from Doncic’s hands after the Western Conference Finals.
Perkins praised Doncic for getting in shape after the Mavericks traded him to the Lakers, but wants to see more.
“Every single time we go give him his flowers for being a warrior, for battling through injuries, and it goes to show you how talented he really is,” Perkins said. “That he’s playing in those playoff games, and he wasn’t 100%, but he was producing. But what I’m saying is in order for Luka to win a championship, he needs to be in [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] form, Jaylen Brown form.
“I’m not saying his body type, but he has to be in that type of fashion,” Perkins added. “I don’t want to keep coming into the postseason, and they like, ‘Oh yeah, Luka’s available, but he’s dealing with this. Luka is available, but he’s dealing with a sore such and such.'”
Everyone tends to be dealing with some injury, or another, come the playoffs, though. Even James, whom Perkins was praising so much, wasn’t fully healthy in his three playoff runs prior to this one. Most recently in the 2025 playoffs, he suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain. James has played through issues, but he hasn’t been as healthy as Perkins thinks.
So, if you have to pick between Doncic and James currently, the former is the easy choice, despite what Perkins believes.
