When Kendrick Perkins Openly Confessed His Hurt After Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook Did Not Invite Him to a Get Together

Kendrick Perkins may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings. The 2008 NBA Champion isn’t afraid to speak his mind — including when he feels he has been wronged. A prime example of this could be seen when former NBA star Hasheem Thabeet posted a photo of a get-together on Instagram in 2013 featuring his teammates on the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time — but Perkins was not invited to the gathering.

 

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Featured in the photo alongside Thabeet were Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Perkins, who played center for the team, was not in the photo, but he did see it online and wasn’t afraid to call his teammates out for forgetting to hit him up.

He commented on the photo declaring that they “go do things and don’t tell him, but it’s all love.” This led the then-29-year-old Perkins to release a series of social media posts centered around “leaving people behind” and how “people talk trash behind your back.”

 

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Perkins would play one more season with the Thunder after the infamous photo dropped. He was traded to the Utah Jazz in 2015.

Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Durant are not doing any better in 2025

Following a massive trade deadline in the 2025 season, Kendrick Perkins has been weighing in on everything from the Luka Doncic trade to the Jimmy Butler trade. One comment he made was regarding his time on the Thunder and how he was the true leader of the team. Kevin Durant wasn’t about to hear all of that — and called Perkins out on X to dispute the statement.

“I know this may be a reach but this comment is by far the craziest shit I’ve seen this week,” KD wrote.

I know this may be a reach but this comment is by far the craziest shit I’ve seen this week https://t.co/kNbncZhIUH

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 6, 2025

One thing the Thabeet Instagram photo sort of proved is that Perkins did not have as great of a thing going in Oklahoma as he seemed to believe.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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