Despite Being Unfollowed by LeBron James, Kendrick Perkins is Unapologetic About His Take on The King

On his Mind the Game pod, LeBron James gushed over Kyrie Irving’s heroics in the 2024 playoff and regretted that they weren’t running mates anymore. Kendrick Perkins, who was teammates with both LBJ and Kai, blasted the King for trying to make the conversation about himself when it should have only been about Kai’s Mavericks and their Finals competition, the Boston Celtics. As a result, a seemingly offended James reportedly unfollowed Perkins on X. 

On the Road Trippin’ podcast with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, Perkins showed no regret for his comments and continued to hum the same tune about King James.

Perk earnestly stated that he had gotten into the media world after a lot of hard work. As a former role player, he had to prove himself, unlike a superstar, who is a lock for such positions regardless of their talent. He added that as he worked his way to the top, he wouldn’t filter out his opinions to please someone,

“I’m not gonna let anyone persuade me to say something that I don’t wanna say. I’mma critique everybody fairly, if you’re doing well I’mma give you flowers… I bust my a** to get into media space, and we all know Hall of Famers, franchise guys when they retire, they get the red carpet rolled out for them in the media space, whether they good or not.”

Later in the segment, Perkins lamented that despite knowing each other since the late 1990s, as high-school standouts, LBJ didn’t give him a call to clear the air. Thus, the relationship between both former teammates has reached its lowest point.

While he admitted being open to settling things with his former friend, Perkins has also been undeterred on his original take even giving his unique analogies.

Kendrick Perkins brought in a Jesus analogy

After an X account posted the news of the All-time leading scorer unfollowing his long-term friend, Perk reacted unusually. He wrote, “Everybody didn’t follow Jesus, I’ll be ok”. The 2008 champion drew flak for this reaction and many felt that he unnecessarily brought god into the conversation.

His former teammate, Kevin Durant, who has been beefing with Perkins for a long time, also took shots at him on his IG. He claimed that the ESPN analyst was pretending to be Jesus because he was intoxicated. Perkins defended his statement by expressing that Durant was unable to understand his analogy. 

While Kendrick Perkins’ comments about LeBron James did seem a little out-of-pocket, he didn’t seem to imply that he was Jesus. He might have meant that losing a follower or two wouldn’t dent his morale as even a divine power like Jesus Christ couldn’t convince everyone to follow him.