ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins seemingly has a knack for bothering current NBA players. Perhaps most prominently, Draymond Green took a victory lap around Perkins after winning the 2022 title with the Golden State Warriors, and there are numerous instances of Perkins’ errant takes making the rounds. On Monday, things got personal with Perkins and a former teammate, Serge Ibaka, when Perkins insinuated Ibaka may have lied about his age and Ibaka took great offense.
Hey @KendrickPerkins, I count my blessings every day and I don’t usually react to comments about me. But It's disappointing to hear someone I shared a locker room with spreading misinformation to be relevant and get views on TV and social media. https://t.co/MRdXJwGpJZ
— Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka) December 26, 2022
Immediately after Ibaka’s pushback to Perkins’ careless comments, Perkins released a trio of responses, first with a direct reply, then a quote tweet, followed by a tweet aimed directly to Ibaka.
Bro it was damn joke. Stop being so damn sensitive.
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) December 26, 2022
Hey @sergeibaka my bad homie if I offended you. It’s was a joke! My bad if it made you feel some type of way!!! My apologies my brother https://t.co/n1SCzEnQL1
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) December 26, 2022
Did you say spreading lies at @sergeibaka ? Please don’t get me started homie!!!! Please don’t. I’m not about to talk about those OKC days and what you were doing in that locker room. I will not… but you definitely need to stop because you know I KNOW!!!! Carry on tho…
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) December 26, 2022
This seems to be a consistent playbook for Perkins, who ratcheted up the discourse with these responses. However, Ibaka wasn’t done after one tweet, instead releasing a six-tweet thread.
The full thread is certainly worth reading, with Ibaka saying Perkins’ comments were “disrespectful to many Africans who have to live with that unfounded accusation,” and also saying “you cheated and didn’t respect the game.” Ibaka then took it to a different place, saying Perkins had broken “the locker room code” with previous comments on Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, saying Perkins was “not a locker room leader” and Perkins “went too far” with his actions.
It isn’t often that this kind of beef escalates in this fashion between former teammates, and Ibaka certainly laid his thoughts out in complete fashion. For now, Perkins has not further responded, but it is easy to see why Ibaka was so offended here, and Perkins didn’t do any favors with his defensive posture.
