Kendrick Perkins might’ve lost his damn mind, implying on First Take that Nikola Jokic, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki won MVP awards because they are white.
We’ve been building to this moment for a while, with the whole thing starting earlier this week when Perkins offered the freezing cold take that Jokic was stat padding.
This attracted a range of responses, including one from Jokic himself:
"What does 100 triple-doubles mean to you?"
Nikola Jokic: "When you're stat padding it's easy, you know." 😂😂😂
(via @VicLombardi, h/t @ClutchPointsApp)
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 1, 2023
Just FYI — Jokic is the least stat-paddy guy since Duncan and Nash. I genuinely think he has no idea what his game stats are as the game is going on (and doesn’t care).
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 28, 2023
It also sparked a heated debate between Perkins and his ESPN colleague JJ Redick.
.@jj_redick STRONGLY disagrees with @KendrickPerkins that Nikola Jokić is stat-padding 😳 pic.twitter.com/yYrP4IWM5S
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 28, 2023
As the debate raged on today, Perkins took things to the next level by implying that Jokic, Nash and Nowitzki only won MVP awards because of their skin colour.
.@KendrickPerkins gives his rebuttal to the backlash from @jj_redick for his Nikola Jokić comments 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/20R4K79SQP
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 1, 2023
“When it comes down to guys winning MVPs since 1990, it’s only three guys that won the MVP that wasn’t Top-10 in scoring. Do you know who those three guys were? Steve Nash, Jokic, and Dirk Nowitzki. What do those guys have in common? I’ll let it sit there and marinate, you think about it.”
Perkins then doubled down on his take with a seperate video posted to Twitter, which he then quickly deleted.
Kendrick Perkins, you can’t just claim criteria is different for white players, and then delete the video and pretend it never happened. This one is here to stay. Accountability.#MileHighBasketball @jj_redick @KendrickPerkins @espn #NBA #NBATwitter #mvp #jokic @jokerszn15 pic.twitter.com/mYrVYEReL8
— Jimmy Joe Jerkić (@Jimmyjoejerkic) March 1, 2023
Someone stop this man before he digs himself an even deeper hole.
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