Monday night appears to be for discussing some of basketball’s most notorious beefs on Area 21. Kevin Garnett’s show on TNT was the site of a reunion for a number of members of the late-00s Boston Celtics. The group – consisting of Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, and Glen Davis – discussed the bad blood between all of them and former teammate Ray Allen. Pierce even went as far as to say that he wants a resolution in the feud.
But the bigger surprise came when Perkins touched on another NBA rivalry he knows well: Kevin Durant vs. Russell Westbrook. Perkins played with the Thunder from 2010-15, and is still friends with both guys. According to Perkins, the frosty relationship between the pair has warmed up, as the two spoke after Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson’s triple-double record.
Perkins dropped this little factoid during a bonus video that the crew did on social media. You can watch it here. The entire segment is great, but head to the one minute mark to hear Perkins discuss Durant’s decision to join the Warriors, and fast forward to the 5:15 mark for the tidbit about Westbrook and Durant’s relationship.
“Believe it or not, though, I was trying to figure out a way to make them talk again,” Perkins told the crew. “Because I felt like the outside world was putting a beef there that really wasn’t too serious, you know what I mean?”
“And so the night that, I think the night that Russ actually broke the record, I had texted KD the next day,” Perkins continued. “He was talking about something, and he sent me a text and was like ‘Hey, man, me and Russ had a nice conversation yesterday.’ The media don’t even know nothing about it, but I just let it be known that they back on talking terms.”
Perkins even went as far as to say he can foresee a scenario where Durant heads back to the Thunder and is reunited with Westbrook. He also said that he doesn’t think Westbrook is the kind of guy who will leave Oklahoma City.
The big takeaway from all this – outside of it’s cool that Durant and Westbrook seem to be at a pretty decent place in their relationship – is we really need to get Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, Perkins, and Davis on television together more frequently.
