“If Kendrick Perkins was in the NBA today, he’d be a mascot”: Jusuf Nurkic trolls former LeBron James teammate after epic defensive performance vs Nikola Jokic in Game 4

Jusuf Nurkic emasculated Kendrick Perkins by referring specifically to him as ‘a clown’ in his ESPN gig. This has prompted a war of words.

This whole hoopla first began when Kendrick Perkins posted an excited tweet in reaction to Game 3. Big Perk claimed that Mike Malone had been consistently outcoaching Terry Stotts in the series:

“Mike Malone flat out coached Terry Stotts!!! Nurkic and Kanter are the worse defensive bigs in the NBA! Btw shoutout to Austin Rivers tonight for proving all the haters wrong.”

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He also took shots at Nurkic’s defense without running the analytics on per-possession and matchup data. As a result, Nurkic had a few choice words for him in today’s post-game presser. Nurk explicitly called Perk a clown for this take on ‘worst defensive bigs in the league’:

“The guy at ESPN. The big fella. Perkins. I guess if he was in the league today he’d be a mascot. And I like him as a person.”

Kendrick Perkins responds to shots from Jusuf Nurkic

Perk hasn’t ever been the type to shy away from these confrontations. He proved it last year when he got into it with Kevin Durant and called him a coward on live TV.

But then, Perk acted much like a snitch after that and cried foul when Durant roasted him in response. And it seems that he doesn’t have much in response to Nurkic either, judging from his rather tame response tweet:

“Hey big Jusuf Nurkic, you still had SIMILAC on your breath when I was putting in work, but keep working Big Fella you’ll get there!!! Carry on…”

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It’s irrelevant when exactly Perkins played in the league. He was never half as valuable to his team as Nurkic is to this Blazers team. He’s by far their best defender and their defensive rating has provably improved with him on court every single year.

It’s comical how often Perkins manages to get in the wrong fights and bark up the wrong trees. I have a strong feeling that his words might just motivate Nurk to finish the series out strong. And keep returning Perk’s shots as well.