Kendrick Perkins Accused LeBron Of ‘Weaseling His Way Into Somebody Else’s Moment’ After His Recent Kyrie Comments

Kyrie Irving is part of the dynamic duo that led the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, and one of his old teammates couldn’t be much happier. Recently, LeBron James discussed Irving getting the Mavs to this point on the “Mind the Game” podcast, and had a ton of good things to say about the man he labeled “the most gifted player the NBA’s ever seen.”

You can watch James’ full comments — in which he expressed his pride in Irving’s growth and his dismay that the two are no longer teammates — right here. But apparently, all of this sat pretty poorly with ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, who called out James on Thursday’s episode of The Jump.

“Here we go again,” Perkins said. “Bron weaseling his way into somebody else’s moment. Like, let somebody else … this is not about you. Your team is at home. This is about the Mavs and the Celtics. But yet, you’re so mad and disappointed that you’re not Kyrie Irving’s running mate no more. Here we go again.”

James and Irving were teammates for three years in Cleveland, and were major parts of the team that won an NBA title back in 2016. While Irving eventually wanted out and got traded — ironically enough, to the Celtics — the pair remained close throughout the years, and there have been plenty of rumors during that time that they could end up reuniting, although that has never come to fruition. It’s not surprising that James would say something like this about Irving in the lead-up to the Finals, even if it did rub Perkins the wrong way.