How These Two White Guys Wound Up In This Kendrick Perkins Family Photo
April 22, 2011 3:02 PM Subscribe
Deadspin tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Kendrick Perkins of the Oklahoma City Thunder and two fans.
That was great. I really hated the Perkins trade. Boston had a thing going at the beginning of the season, and I still haven't really been able to understand why they blew that up. I hope he does well in OKC.
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:21 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:21 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I don't follow the NBA at all, but that sure was a nice story. Perkins sounds like a real standup guy.
posted by mosk at 3:29 PM on April 22, 2011
posted by mosk at 3:29 PM on April 22, 2011
Although I'm not into basketball, I really enjoyed the story. I look forward to seeing Perk on the sports highlights here!
posted by dragonplayer at 3:30 PM on April 22, 2011
posted by dragonplayer at 3:30 PM on April 22, 2011
i follow NBA basketball, and thought that almost all sports stars, only hang out with relatives and rich dudes. this story was about that misconception i've held for the last 20 years. good story!
posted by taxpayer at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2011
posted by taxpayer at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2011
I hate basketball with a white hot fury. This is an awesome story, thanks for posting it. I even read portions of it to Mrs Nevercalm, who didn't even roll her eyes.
posted by nevercalm at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2011
posted by nevercalm at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2011
"We're [at a club] in downtown Houston, with a cavalcade of the hardest-looking dudes you've ever seen," Brian said. "Right behind Perk is Justin, in a Stormtrooper T-shirt and shorts."
That's a fucking priceless image.
posted by dersins at 3:43 PM on April 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
That's a fucking priceless image.
posted by dersins at 3:43 PM on April 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
awesome story. I will now root for Perk often.
. . .but the OKC Thunder will always be the Seattle Sonics to me.
posted by KingEdRa at 4:22 PM on April 22, 2011
. . .but the OKC Thunder will always be the Seattle Sonics to me.
posted by KingEdRa at 4:22 PM on April 22, 2011
The Perk trade was idiotic. Jeff Green is not a good basketball player, and Kristic is a bad joke on his best days. Perkins was the Celtics enforcer, a young promising center in a league where the center position is really down right now, but the good ones are still king of the court for the teams that have the luxury of having one. Perkins might not have been flashy or great on offense, but he played tough physical defense on the best centers in the NBA every single night. Not to mention that the Celtic's identity was a tough defensive team, losing Perkins was a huge blow to that self-image and for what?
In the NBA you trade scraps for starters for .70 on the dollar. You never trade away a core starter for prospects or role players. And you never trade a good center. Ever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:33 PM on April 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
In the NBA you trade scraps for starters for .70 on the dollar. You never trade away a core starter for prospects or role players. And you never trade a good center. Ever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:33 PM on April 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
By all reports, Perkins is an incredibly nice, warm, soft spoke guy off the court. As the blog title states, on the court, he's a freaking beast.
The idea behind the trade was supposedly that they would need someone to help/spell Paul Pierce because of all of the small forwards that have suddenly flooded the eastern conference playoff teams. This round they have Anthony to deal with (39 points, 17 rebounds in game 2), next round they most likely have Lebron James to deal with, and Pierce isn't all that young anymore.
But yeah, it was a spectacular failure, Green was not the player Ainge thought he was, and it has seemingly killed what the Celtics had going (Rondo in particular is getting exposed a bit without a big like Perk behind him to cover for his defensive gambles). For the Thunder, though, Perkins might very well be exactly what they needed, aside from being in Seattle and being called the Sonics.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:11 PM on April 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
The idea behind the trade was supposedly that they would need someone to help/spell Paul Pierce because of all of the small forwards that have suddenly flooded the eastern conference playoff teams. This round they have Anthony to deal with (39 points, 17 rebounds in game 2), next round they most likely have Lebron James to deal with, and Pierce isn't all that young anymore.
But yeah, it was a spectacular failure, Green was not the player Ainge thought he was, and it has seemingly killed what the Celtics had going (Rondo in particular is getting exposed a bit without a big like Perk behind him to cover for his defensive gambles). For the Thunder, though, Perkins might very well be exactly what they needed, aside from being in Seattle and being called the Sonics.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:11 PM on April 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
Liked the story a lot. What I don't understand is why the story seems to imply that the friendship is over. They sounded like true friends and not just fanboys. If that is the case, why can't the friendship continue while Perk is a beast in OKC?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:50 PM on April 22, 2011
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:50 PM on April 22, 2011
If that is the case, why can't the friendship continue while Perk is a beast in OKC?
Although they'll probably still be in touch with Perk, ultimately, sports is about rooting for laundry, and these guys are Celtics fans with Perkins as their (former) favorite player on the Celtics. Now that he's on another team, they're not going to root for him as hard as before (although this might be a special case given how close they got to Perkins IRL). If you check the blog now, there are updates on the Celtics / Knicks series, and not the Thunder / Nuggets series, despite the fact that Perkins is playing in the latter. There will undoubtedly still be a friendship, but its tempered significantly by his departure. It's simply the way it works.
posted by shen1138 at 11:10 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Although they'll probably still be in touch with Perk, ultimately, sports is about rooting for laundry, and these guys are Celtics fans with Perkins as their (former) favorite player on the Celtics. Now that he's on another team, they're not going to root for him as hard as before (although this might be a special case given how close they got to Perkins IRL). If you check the blog now, there are updates on the Celtics / Knicks series, and not the Thunder / Nuggets series, despite the fact that Perkins is playing in the latter. There will undoubtedly still be a friendship, but its tempered significantly by his departure. It's simply the way it works.
posted by shen1138 at 11:10 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Being right near OKC, I have to say this is a great story. Not only did we need a guy like the Kendrick Perkins on the basketball court, we wanted a guy like Kendrick Perkins off the basketball court, because he fits in. The Thunder is a team of young nice guys who play basketball amazingly well and are getting even better.
When you measure your income in millions, people want your autograph all the time, and you're counted amongst the very best in the world at your job, but you still cook spaghetti and hand down baby clothes, that's down to earth. That's the kind of guy who belongs in Oklahoma.
posted by Saydur at 4:30 AM on April 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
When you measure your income in millions, people want your autograph all the time, and you're counted amongst the very best in the world at your job, but you still cook spaghetti and hand down baby clothes, that's down to earth. That's the kind of guy who belongs in Oklahoma.
posted by Saydur at 4:30 AM on April 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Fucking Gawker's redesign really did break the web. It took me three tries to get to the story.
posted by converge at 5:52 AM on April 23, 2011
posted by converge at 5:52 AM on April 23, 2011
Wasn't complaining about the story, by the way. Good find.
posted by converge at 5:56 AM on April 23, 2011
posted by converge at 5:56 AM on April 23, 2011
The Perk trade was idiotic. Jeff Green is not a good basketball player, and Kristic is a bad joke on his best days.
Ah yes, the "Perk = Bill Russell" group has been heard from. I thought Jeff Green was a good player based on what I'd seen and a number of the trade stories describing him as the best player in the trade until you linked to a one-graf piece of cherry-picked stats from a political blogger. The scales have dropped from my eyes.
I love Perk and have been impressed by his growth from raw high school player into a defensive force, but come on. Maybe the Celtics would be better this year, I don't know. But other than Rondo, their core is 400 years old. Danny Ainge's job isn't to maybe win this year, it's to win every year. And you don't do that building around a big kid with hands of stone who insists on putting the goddamn ball on the floor every time he gets it in he paint even though I've been screaming at him for years through my TV to just go straight up. It's a tragedy the Celtics have lost those 5 ppg.
posted by yerfatma at 7:35 AM on April 23, 2011
Ah yes, the "Perk = Bill Russell" group has been heard from. I thought Jeff Green was a good player based on what I'd seen and a number of the trade stories describing him as the best player in the trade until you linked to a one-graf piece of cherry-picked stats from a political blogger. The scales have dropped from my eyes.
I love Perk and have been impressed by his growth from raw high school player into a defensive force, but come on. Maybe the Celtics would be better this year, I don't know. But other than Rondo, their core is 400 years old. Danny Ainge's job isn't to maybe win this year, it's to win every year. And you don't do that building around a big kid with hands of stone who insists on putting the goddamn ball on the floor every time he gets it in he paint even though I've been screaming at him for years through my TV to just go straight up. It's a tragedy the Celtics have lost those 5 ppg.
posted by yerfatma at 7:35 AM on April 23, 2011
The Thunder is a team of young nice guys who play basketball amazingly well and are getting even better.
Seems like it: there was a great story about them as a team in the SI NBA preview this year.
posted by yerfatma at 8:29 AM on April 23, 2011
Seems like it: there was a great story about them as a team in the SI NBA preview this year.
posted by yerfatma at 8:29 AM on April 23, 2011
A much better comparison would be Ben Wallace. He didn't score much either but was the heart and soul of a title team.
And personally, I hate the C's and every sports team from Boston. The day Tom Brady got hurt I just laughed and laughed, hell this was even my facebook picture for weeks. So I have no personal stake in the debate other than as a general NBA observer. But that trade was so empirically awful, even a political blogger could see it from miles away.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:59 PM on April 23, 2011
And personally, I hate the C's and every sports team from Boston. The day Tom Brady got hurt I just laughed and laughed, hell this was even my facebook picture for weeks. So I have no personal stake in the debate other than as a general NBA observer. But that trade was so empirically awful, even a political blogger could see it from miles away.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:59 PM on April 23, 2011
Wow, that's awesome. I think it's every famous person's responsibility to bring one at least one normal person along for the ride.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:48 PM on April 23, 2011
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:48 PM on April 23, 2011
But that trade was so empirically awful
You keep asserting this, but it's strange to see a word like "empirically" tied to two blog posts, as opposed to data like Perk's 2 point, 2 rebound game this week. You must remember a different Ben Wallace.
posted by yerfatma at 7:19 AM on April 25, 2011
You keep asserting this, but it's strange to see a word like "empirically" tied to two blog posts, as opposed to data like Perk's 2 point, 2 rebound game this week. You must remember a different Ben Wallace.
posted by yerfatma at 7:19 AM on April 25, 2011
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posted by reenum at 3:07 PM on April 22, 2011