The feud that has blown up on social media is between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith, but a new name has entered.
James is tired of how NBA analysts, including Smith, have been covering/critiquing today’s players. Media members within the league did not like James’ comment, especially a former player that’s in the media. Kendrick Perkins, a 2008 NBA Champion for the Boston Celtics, is part of the ESPN family. The native Texan was a first-round selection of the 2003 draft like James.
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Perkins, 40, spent 18 years in the league.
He experienced good and bad moments from his time of being covered by media; however, he does not hold a grudge with the way he was covered. Perkins feels like James and the players in this area are too sensitive and he explained on ESPN’s First Take.
Kendrick Perkins goes after LeBron James
“LeBron James need to stop. He needs to stop. I’m so sick of him with this ‘oh how the league is covered’ because he wanted to be covered a certain way.”
(h/t @awfulannouncing )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 27, 2025
“LeBron James needs to stop,” Perkins said.
“He needs to stop. I’m so sick of him with this ‘oh, how the league is covered’ because he wanted to be covered a certain way.”
Perkins said he is a ‘big LeBron fan’ and that he has known James since 1998.
“The problem is everything that comes out of LeBron James’ mouth ain’t the damn gospel,” Perkins said.
“We are in 2025, it is a different era, and d***** you have to adjust. The coverage of the NBA has been the same since I arrived in the NBA. In today’s NBA, these players are so sensitive that it doesn’t make any damn sense. When I think about my boy, Kevin Garnett, and what he told me in 2008-09 … Kevin Garnett was out. He was hurt, he hurt his knee, and was out for the majority of the season. Rondo had elevated his game to another level and all of a sudden, Doc Rivers was running post ups for me. I remember KG telling me something. He said, ‘Perk, just like your big ass run home and turn on ESPN when you have a good game, keep that same energy when you have a bad game. You use that fuel to go out there and prove people wrong.'”
Perkins said you sign up for ‘the good fame and bad fame’ when you enter the NBA.
“It comes with a territory and it is fair criticism,” he said. “If you play well, then we are going to give you your flowers. If you play like garbage, then we are going to critique you. It is what it is.”
Big Perk even reminded the First Take panel of him being a legend on Shaqtin A Fool and winning MVP in 2014.
“It did not keep me from going to sleep at night,” Perkins said.
NBA fans react to escalating feud between LeBron and Stephen A.
He named several legends — including Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Allen Iverson — that faced criticism, but they used it to help them get better. Perkins has critiqued James on occasions and James has gone after him.
Perkins revealed on First Take that he’s blocked James number.
Kendrick Perkins says he blocked LeBron’s phone number ????
(???? @FirstTake ) pic.twitter.com/IgTG5rHC5y
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 27, 2025
“He unfollowed me on social media, and I blocked him on my cell phone,” Perkins said.
James is a popular, yet polarizing figure. No one will refute that.
It is hopeful thinking that he and a few members of ESPN can come to a truce soon enough.
Stephen M. Smith is a writer for Ball Exclusives. You can follow him him X via @CoachingMSmith.
