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Kevin Durant Gets Brutally Honest About Kendrick Perkins’ Recent Statement

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Nathaniel Holloway | Last updated Feb 6, 2025 9:03 PM ET

Phoenix Suns star forward Kevin Durant has been in a lot of NBA news over the past week due to trade rumors.

The Suns never made Durant available for trade, but they were listening to offers for their 36-year-old superstar, which shocked the NBA world. While the Suns ended up holding onto Durant, he entered the news once again after the trade deadline wrapped up due to him blasting one of his former teammates.

On Wednesday’s NBA trade deadline special on ESPN’s show NBA Today, former Oklahoma City thunder and current NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins made a comment that caused Durant to not hold back when responding to it.

Perkins claimed that he was the real leader of the Thunder during his time with the team, not his superstar and NBA great teammates Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

“It doesn’t mean your best player is your leader,” Perkins said Wednesday. “When I was with the Thunder, it wasn’t KD, it wasn’t Russ (Westbrook), it wasn’t James (Harden), I was the one leading.”

While NBA fans are used to Perkins saying controversial things on the air, this time his comments made Durant react, and he did not hold back.

“I know this may be a reach but this comment is by far the craziest (expletive) I’ve seen this week,” Durant posted on X in a response to Perkins’ comments.

Durant had been through an interesting week with the trade rumors surrounding him, and Perkins’ comments of him not being a leader pushed Durant over the edge, causing him to call out Perkins.

Of course, Durant and Perkins have had bad blood on social media before, including back in 2020 when the two got into a heated argument after Perkins criticized Durant for leaving the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors.

While the two sides will eventually cool off, the feud between the two will likely continue if Perkins continues to take shots at Durant in the future.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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