Between injuries and off-court behavior, Ja Morant is one of the most criticized young players in today’s league.
And at the top of the list of pundits who aren’t afraid to talk down on him is former NBA player turned
ESPN analyst
Kendrick Perkins.
Big Perk was on the Out The Mud podcast with ex-Memphis Grizzlies stars Tony Allen and Zach Randolph when he aired out his feelings about the 26-year-old and how their relationship began changing due to his behavior.
“I was cool with Ja at one point, but then when Ja started getting in trouble with some of his stuff off the court and sh-t like that, I had to speak on it, Ja don’t really f-ck with me no more…to be honest, in that type of situation, I don’t f-ck with Ja,” Perkins said.
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Perkins explains that his original beef with Morant came when ESPN headed down to Memphis to watch them in the early stages of building something special.
“Y’all had the city rocking. ESPN packed up, spent millions of dollars to go do an all-access on the Hall in Memphis. They did that for Ja,” he said.
He adds that he was always propping up Morant, saying he should have been the top pick in 2019 over
Zion Williamson, and that he made his feelings clear to the network’s bosses, leading to more attention. Perk feels that Morant messed up his reputation, having had his repeated
gun-flashing issues.
“You f-ck up, not only do that make you look bad, that made me look bad. They recognized you because of me speaking highly of you. It ain’t no coincidence you went from having three games on ESPN to 52.”
The clip went viral on X, with over 6 million views, and at least one of those belongs to Morant, who quote-tweeted the video as an explanation for why he’s no longer on good terms with Perkins.
“You da reason for my notoriety perk? come on dawg . 😂 you showing em why ion fw yo kind,” Morant wrote.
Social media is enjoying the basketball beef. See the reactions below.
