“Stop With Bullsh*t!”: Kendrick Perkins Vehemently Disagrees With Austin Rivers’ Take on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown

Ahead of Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals, Austin Rivers and his friend Pausha Haghighi lashed out at the criticism that Boston Celtics duo, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, received from analysts. However, Kendrick Perkins disagreed and claimed that the former Clipper was trying to stir the pot for attention. The war of words commenced on a clip from the Off Guard Podcast, Haghighi argued that Brown and Tatum have been as successful as any duo could be without winning the title.

He’s spot on, considering they’ve reached the Eastern Conference Finals five times and the NBA Finals twice in seven seasons together. Rivers backed his co-host and added that he found it baffling that despite the duo averaging a combined 76 points and reaching the Conference Finals consistently, analysts criticized them.

He added that fans demanding Brown be traded for a better player do not understand his importance to his team’s chemistry and success. Rivers compared the Celtics duo to Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray and noted that they haven’t been as consistent as the Boston stars but there are no calls to trade the guard for a better star.

Perkins vehemently disagreed with Rivers and Haghighi’s rant and replied to the podcast clip on Instagram. He highlighted that Brown and Tatum are being held to the same standards that other superstars were before they won their first NBA title. He wrote,

“Nobody kills them. Stop with bulls**t! They’re getting the same energy [Le]Bron [James], Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and All the greats got before they won their first Championship. I see what you’re trying to do here tho. I guess that’s a Duke thang!”

Perkins is correct in pointing out that superstars have often received flak for failing to win an NBA title. LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic also received vitriol for failing to win the championship despite having multiple MVP awards. It took until their maiden title win to silence the critics.

Brown and Tatum are treated like superstars and will continue to receive criticism until they lead the Celtics to a championship. It’s a rite of passage that every great NBA player has to go through. The voices are loud, but they’ll be near deafening if the duo fails to win the title this season.

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum’s best opportunity to win the title

Since Brown and Tatum teamed up in 2017, the Celtics have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals five times. They were the higher seed in all but one series and the favorites to win each time. However, they advanced to the finals only twice. They failed to beat the Warriors in their last visit to the championship series, with many citing ‘experience’ as the reason, but that excuse won’t fly against the Dallas Mavericks.

Barring Kyrie Irving, no player on the Mavericks roster has enjoyed as much playoff success as the Celtics have. They have the better team, a superstar duo, the homecourt advantage, and experience, on their side. Their stars have seemed to align.

Brown recently complained about not getting the credit he deserves and even claimed that his critics can ‘kiss his a**’. But if he and Tatum lose the championship, fans and analysts will whoop them mercilessly.