© Nicole Sweet | 2020 Jan 7
The NBA pettiness league has a “big three” all it’s own.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Kendrick Perkins are three of the most polarizing figures in the NBA community. Now there’s a beef that involves them all.
It started with Perkins’ criticism (shocker) of Irving pushing back (shocker) on the league’s agreed upon restart in Orlando come July 31. Never mind that Irving won’t be participating as he recovers from injury, he reportedly believes a return to basketball would distract from the protests and social change that have spread across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
According to reports, some players agree with Irving, but most do not. Some even believe that playing would forward the cause, due to the size of the platform NBA players would have as the only major American sport going on.
Whether Perkins feels that way as well is unclear, but it is clear that he’s annoyed with Irving for being a distraction.
“No one is listening to Kyrie,” Perkins said on CBS Sports Radio Tuesday. “The NBA is going to continue. All he’s doing is causing unnecessary drama between the NBA brothers that we don’t need right now. Him lashing out is just making news and making a whole bunch of noise for nothing because the NBA season is going to happen.”
Kendrick Perkins sends shots at Kyrie Irving and says he’s ‘confused’
“If you take Kyrie Irving’s brain and put it in a bird right now, guess what that bird is going to do? It’s going to fly backwards.”
(? @GetUpESPN )
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) June 17, 2020
Durant happens to be one of the players in Kyrie’s camp, and he responded to Perkins’ comments on Instagram (shocker) with two words, “sell out.”
KD calls Kendrick Perkins a “sell out” on Instagram and then retweets a video of Perkins airballing a jumper ? pic.twitter.com/q2MOgT7PvA
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) June 17, 2020
Now we await a Perkins response which is surly coming.