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Former NBA center and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins was involved in an altercation during one of his son’s recent AAU basketball games in Norman, Oklahoma.
Perkins is known on-screen as someone who doesn’t hesitate to get into a verbal argument about sports with his colleagues, but video from the AAU game via TMZ Sports shows the 6-foot-10 big man being restrained while yelling at someone who is not seen in the video.
Perkins coaches his son’s YPG Perkins team, and things were getting heated 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 claims that international players have “completely taken over” the NBA, saying there is no hope for Americans to regain the league’s top spot in the next decade. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Perkins can be seen yelling at someone, while his team’s coaches pushed him away to ease the tension.
As the video went viral, Perkins responded to it on social media.
“Of course, and it probably won’t be the last time!” Perkins wrote about X. “I will protect every child in my organization as if they were my own.”
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Perkins also addressed the altercation during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he said he was trying to protect his players.
“We’re in a tournament; it’s a heated game. 17U, they come and go or whatever,” Perkins said. “We end up winning the game, all right. The other team had this guy who was like 7 feet, 400 pounds. After the game, he comes over and he body slams one of my kids who plays for my team. I sit there and then I get up because everyone’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 relax.'” XYZ. I grab my players. I tell the other team’s coach, “Hey bro, get your players, I got mine.” “I’m getting nothing, I’m getting nothing.
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 was knocked to the ground, his parents weren’t at the game. So, his parents trusted me with their child. So, I have to protect this child like he was my own. I’m going to defend him, even though I didn’t go out there with bad intentions, I have to make sure that this child is okay and goes home to his parents. He’s a young man, but again, he plays in my organization. So, I have to make sure, by all means necessary, that he is safe.
Before Perkins talked about the NBA on air, the Texas native played 14 seasons in the league, helping the Boston Celtics win the title in 2008.
He spent eight of those seasons in Boston, averaging 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, becoming a starting center for his team.
Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins plays during the second quarter in Game 4 of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, 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.
