Stephen Curry’s injured thumb has quickly become one of the biggest topics heading into the Warriors’ Game 6 matchup against the Houston Rockets on Friday night. And for better or for worse, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins believes that Curry’s injured thumb will be on the mind of Rockets players for as long as the series goes.
In Game 5 of the series on Wednesday, Warriors broadcasters Bob Fitzgerald and Kelenna Azibuike claimed that they believe that Rockets players were intentionally trying to further injure Curry’s thumb by hitting his hand on the way down from shot attempts, which is deemed completely legal by the current rules.
Rockets forward Dillon Brooks didn’t exactly do all that much to disprove this assumption, detailing in his postgame press conference that if the roles were reversed and he were dealing with an injury, he would expect Warriors players to be targeting his injury.
“If I had an injured ankle, I would attack that ankle every single time,” said Brooks. “So, whatever they’re saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it.”
Ahead of Game 6 on Friday, the NBA Countdown crew discussed Brooks’ comments. And while some may feel that Brooks’ comments show that he could be considered a dirty player, Kendrick Perkins largely agreed with his stance on the matter.
“Yeah, guess what, Dillon Brooks is right,” said Perkins. “I mean, look, everything is in play when you are in the postseason. When you are trying to win and you are trying to advance. Damn right he should be swiping at that thumb of Steph Curry, I would. Just to play mind games. Even if you don’t hit it, you still have to be swiping at it.”
Perkins then turned his attention to criticizing Steve Kerr for his postgame comments, who openly shared his desire for the league to change the rules on players being able to contact shooting hands after the ball has been released.
“I don’t want to hear that from Steve Kerr,” Perkins added. “All of the sudden, the league needs to investigate and look into this. You have a player, Draymond Green, who has choked people out and did way worse things. Get out of here with all that nonsense. I’m with Dillon Brooks on this. Damnit, if you are out there and you are wounded, if I am a defender, I am going to attack those wounds. I’m going to do everything in the world to walk out of there with the win.”
On one hand, Perkins does have a point. If Steph Curry believes he is healthy enough to play, he should be prepared to be hit on his injured thumb, whether it is intentional or not.
But on the other hand, it becomes a slippery slope when you have a player publicly saying that they plan on “attacking” an opposing player’s injury. If it were Curry’s knee that was injured instead of his thumb, what is stopping a Rockets player from diving at his knees and making an injury that he could play through a career-altering one instead?
It’s a bit of an odd stance for an NBA analyst to publicly be endorsing this kind of behavior. Understandably, Perkins caught some flak for his comments on social media from fans.