Kendrick Perkins claims ‘you’re crazy’ if you disagree with his response to Ja Morant’s ‘notoriety’ tweet

Kendrick Perkins doubles down on claim that he put Ja Morant in the spotlight

Once Kendrick Perkins made his initial comments, Ja Morant immediately responded on social media by saying Perkins was being ridiculous.

Perkins then took to the Road Trippin’ podcast to clarify his comments, and explain that he was the person who has backed Morant in the media from the beginning.

“To all the trolls out there and the people in my comments, I know that I didn’t create Ja Morant. I know that I’m not Ja Morant’s parents. I know that he had to put in the work to get to where he’s at.

“What I was telling the world… but on the internet now, you have to break every single thing down because everybody thinks they’re the sharpest knife in the drawer, when they’re really a butter knife.

“What I’m saying is, on that draft, the person who was highlighted the most was Zion Williamson – the greatest prospect since LeBron James.

“The coverage was of Duke basketball. Did Ja Morant put the world on notice at Murray State in the tournament? Absolutely.

Kendrick Perkins says he was the only one praising Ja Morant in national media

Kendrick Perkins continued further, claiming that he backed Ja Morant over Zion Williamson from the 2019 NBA Draft, and that if people ignore how he backed Morant for years and helped him, they’re being disingenuous.

“He got drafted number two. Guess who was on the stage on draft day talking about, ‘If I’m the New Orleans Pelicans, I might really consider drafting Ja Morant at number one.

“It was this bozo right here. That was me who was getting laughed at at the time. ‘Perkins has lost his mind. They’re going to take Zion.’

“Anyway, we could have that discussion another time. We get into the season, guess who’s on the Ja Morant train at the network that I work at, ESPN.

“It was me. While everybody else was going right with Zion, I went left with [Morant].

“You can go pull it up. They wrote it in the paper. They called me the Mayor of Memphis because they said I was the only one in the national media who was giving Ja and the Memphis Grizzlies their recognition.

“Name me a time, maybe I’m lost, that ESPN has ever packed up, gone down to a small market team and done a week-long all-access.”

“Maybe in Cleveland because we’re talking about LeBron James, but name me another time that they did a week-long all-access on a small market team. I don’t even believe they’ve done that with SGA.

“Guess who was the voice on ESPN hyping up Ja? It was Big Perk. So, I’m not taking credit for him getting to the league, fools. It’s crazy to me.

“I’m just saying, when it comes down to the national media coverage at the network that I work for, I was the one standing alone for an extended period of time.

“And if you think that I didn’t have any type of influence on you getting the coverage of the all-access, you’re crazy.”

Morant has every right to respond to Perkins, as it was his talent that brought him to the national stage. Perkins has a habit of trying to make himself a talking point, and this is just another case of that.

So far, Morant has shown some growth this season. But there are still some concerns that Morant will end up like Allen Iverson when everything is said and done, from a tangible success standpoint.