Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins may have been teammates on the Oklahoma City Thunder team that made it to the NBA Finals in 2012. But they are not best friends.
The pair were at odds once again this week thanks to Perkins trying to defend his play in those playoffs after criticism from another NBA star of the 2000s.
On the Road Trippin podcast that Perkins does with Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Allie Clifton, the big man responded to comments made by Kenyon Martin. Earlier this week, Martin said on Gil’s Arena that Perkins would be a liability in a matchup between the 2025 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2012 team that made the finals.
Perkins then went into great detail to talk about how well he played in that postseason, even going as far as to take credit for the Thunder going as far as they did.
“Let me give you some facts, ok? Let me give you some facts when it comes to throwing out that word of liability. The Oklahoma City Thunder never went to the NBA Finals until Kendrick Perkins arrived on that team because they couldn’t get past the Lakers who had the twin towers of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol,” Perkins said.
He then went through the 2012 playoffs series by series, talking about how he shut down the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Gasol/Bynum, and Tim Duncan. He also said that he locked up Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker on defensive switches and claimed that he had “a few double doubles” in the NBA Finals.
While Perkins may want some shine for his role in the Thunder’s finals appearance, Durant wasn’t buying it.
But in a four word tweet, Kevin Durant torched Kendrick Perkins with a flamethrower.
There is clearly no love lost between Perk and KD. Earlier this year, Kevin Durant took issue with Kendrick Perkins saying he was the leader of that Thunder team that made it to the NBA Finals.
Let’s go through some of the numbers. First of all, Perk averaged 4.7 PPG and 6.2 RPG in that 2012 postseason, so his contributions didn’t come on the offensive end. He also only had one double double in the 2012 playoffs, which came in Game 3 of the Finals against the Heat.
As for his opponents, Nowitzki averaged 26.7 PPG in a sweep, over a point above his postseason average. However, Gasol averaged just 12 PPG in their series loss to the Thunder and Duncan averaged 17 PPG, which was well below their averages. So maybe there is some merit to what Kendrick Perkins is saying! But certainly not enough to gain anything more than a sarcastic response from Kevin Durant.