ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins was apparently asked to leave an AAU tournament game in Las Vegas where he was coaching. It was revealed on Monday’s episode of the “NBA Today,” where host Malika Andrews and the panel, including Ramona Shelburne, Brian, and Ohm Youngmisuk, reveled in their colleague’s antics.
“Look I’ve been coaching for three years and I haven’t got ejected one time,” Perkins began to explain. “So I’m trying to ask the ref a question on why did he eject one of my players and he would not talk to me. So when he did not give me an answer, I blew off the gasket. I’m pissed off at this point.”
Slow News Day
It’s the dog days of summer, but ESPN has to continue to create viral moments on social media. Perhaps they hope this will catch on.
On the surface it’s kind of funny to see your colleague get worked up over a kids game and get tossed.
“First of all I just spent thousands of dollars to come to Vegas for this tournament. I’m not leaving the gym,” Perk continued. “And then the tournament director was like, ‘Perk you going to have to stand on the sideline, but you can’t finish the game. I was just trying to ask him a question and he was ignoring me.”
Perk’s team did go on to lose the game, but the NBA champ said he didn’t care because he was pissed off.
ESPN Can Be Better
In the grand scheme of things this is what it is. But ESPN dedicating a segment on the incident on their flagship basketball studio show is a problem. Are we glorifying this type of behavior? Are we signaling that it’s OK to lose your temper over a kids game?
Competitive people like Perk are wired differently than even your average competitor. You don’t make the NBA and have a long career otherwise. It’s often hard for athletes to turn that part of their brains off, even in a low-stakes environment.
But in a country where we take things too far as it is, we don’t need to highlight stuff like this. Beyond hopefully going viral, it doesn’t do anyone any good.
