Playoff Draymond Green showed up in Game 6 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Then the Golden State Warriors forward paused, after basking in the glory of his performance of 14 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists, to respond to ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins’ comments on his 24 combined points in the first five games enter the Grizzlies series.
above NBC sports:
“Something came on my phone early,” Green said during his post-game press. “A guy says I’m scared to shoot the basketball. Fear and I in the same sentence is brutal. But you have a big ogre on TV talking about what Draymond says is not the gospel. It’s the gospel. What I’m saying is the gospel. If you say that multiple times in different segments, you must think what I’m saying is the gospel. So sometimes you gotta come out and shut up some guys. When you get people talking off their necks. “Anyone can make the pass that Draymond makes.” That’s just stupid.”
Perkins’ war of words began with Green continuing First take after Game 5 to imply he could get off the couch and fabricate more offense in the Warriors lineup than their skeleton forward.
“I sit up here and I see all the fluctuations. He doesn’t even look at the basket.
“He’s scared of taking the shot now. Some of those assists that he gives to Steph Curry, Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson, I could go out there and get those same assists. They open wide.”
Understandably, this analysis would bother Green, who was never the type of player whose worth is represented in the boxing score and doesn’t know how his worth is perceived outside of Golden State.
On Friday night, after hearing about Green’s comments at the press conference, left to his own devices, Perkins released a response to Green’s “ogre” dig. His reply was a bizarre, youthful speech. Rather than respond to the attacks on his career in the NBA, to which he’s seemingly jaded at this point, Perkins played the victim, dragging his wife into the mix to vouch for his er… attractiveness, concluding that he Green called UGLY.
“Hey Draymond, let me tell you a little thing, man, that whole ogre, however you say I look, man, you’re not cute,” he said. “You ain’t handsome man, you better thank that NBA logo, you better thank Jerry West. I’ve been with my wife since 10th grade, dime before the NBA stuff, so don’t twist everything.”
Perkins probably hit send and felt like he was Kendrick Lamar coming out of the dressing room. In reality, it was silly for a 40-year-old man to have such platforms First take and NBA today at his disposal to fire back like a mean girl.
Before he finished this shot, Perkins should have gone outside and touched some grass. I’m sure he had a dozen text messages on his phone telling him to shoot back ASAP, but he inadvertently made himself look more like a joke. I don’t know if Perkins is aware of his looks, but a bat dog will roar.
The NBA’s most argumentative man used Perkins’ comments as fuel and Perkins hopped into another fight. However, that is the role of Perkins. And as we’ve learned from his NBA career, he plays his role superbly. Big Perk was a lowly post-club bouncer during his playing career, tasked with guarding the door to the basket and protecting the stars he had the opportunity to play with. Since moving to the media, he has become an antagonist to former teammates and several active players.
In the past few weeks, he has received a reprimand from his wife Ex-teammate Russell Westbrook. You could do a whole montage of all the times Kevin Durant had trouble with Perkins’ takes. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s family were devastated when Perkins called Giannis. Khris Middleton’s Robin.
His worth at ESPN isn’t in his insights or thoughts on smoking. He’s not an ogre. He’s more of a media troll who’s there to get reactions from players and then feed off that fodder to create more content for their studio shows. We’ll find out just how successful he is when he and Stephen A. nudge each other’s gums to milk their self-perpetuating drama with all their might on Monday.
