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Former NBA center and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins was involved in an altercation at one of his son’s recent AAU basketball games in Norman, Oklahoma.
Perkins is known on-screen as someone who doesn’t mind having a verbal argument about sports with his colleagues, but a video from the AAU game via TMZ Sports shows the 6-foot-10 big man being held back as he screamed at someone not seen in the video.
Perkins coaches his son’s YPG Perkins team, and things were getting chippy against their opponent, Swaveway Playaz. However, a non-basketball foul sent the 2008 NBA champion over the edge.
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ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins says international players have “completely taken over” the NBA, arguing there’s no hope for Americans to reclaim the league’s top spot for the next decade. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Perkins can be seen yelling toward someone, while coaches on his team were pushing him away to alleviate the tension.
As the video went viral, Perkins responded to it on social media.
“Damn right, and it probably won’t be the last time!” Perkins wrote on X. “I’m going to protect every single kid in my organization like they’re my own.”
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Perkins also addressed the altercation during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he made the stance he was trying to protect his players.
“We’re in a tournament; it’s a heated game. 17U, they’re going back and forth or whatever,” Perkins said. “We end up winning the game, all right cool. The other team, they had this guy who’s like 7-foot, 400 pounds. After the game, he comes and he body slams one of my kids who plays for my team. I stay seated and then I get up ‘cause everybody’s running around. The players, they’re about to fight. So, as a responsible owner of the organization, I get up and, ‘Hey man, y’all need to chill,’ X-Y-Z. I’m grabbing my players. I tell the coach of the other team, ‘Hey bro, get your players. I got mine.’ He pops off. ‘I ain’t getting nothing, I ain’t getting nothing. Who the hell are you.’
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins reacts in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 11, 2018. (David Richard/USA TODAY Sports)
“The kid that got slammed to the ground, his parents weren’t at the game. So, his parents trusted me with their child. So, I gotta protect that child as if he’s mine. I’m going to stand up for him, even though I didn’t go over there with bad intentions, I gotta make sure that kid is OK and he makes it back home to his parents. He’s a young man, but again, he plays in my organization. So, I gotta make sure, by any means necessary, that he’s safe.”
Before Perkins was on-air talking about the NBA, the Texas native played 14 seasons in the league, helping the Boston Celtics win the 2008 title.
He spent eight of those seasons in Boston, averaging 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, developing into a starting center for his squad.
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins plays during the second quarter of game four in the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 8, 2018. The Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 108-85 to complete a four-game sweep. (Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports)
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During the 2010-11 season, Perkins was traded from the Celtics to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he spent five seasons. He also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans before retiring from the league.
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