Former NBA player and current ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins was at the center of a fight at his son’s AAU game over the weekend.
Perkins was captured on video lunging at the opposition at a game played in Norman, Oklahoma.
The big man claims he was defending the members of his YPG Perkins team after a non-basketball play by a player from the Swaveway Playaz set him off.
The video obtained by TMZ showed Perkins screaming at the opposing team’s staff as he needed to be held back by multiple people.
According to the outlet, Norman Police were working as off-duty security at the event and assisted in resolving the matter. No criminal charges were filed against anyone.
After the video went viral, Perkins addressed the matter on his social media accounts and did not apologize for his behavior.
ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins was captured on video in a fight at an AAU game
Perkins was seen being held back from coaches during the outburst in Oklahoma
‘Damn right and it probably won’t be the last time! I’m going to protect every single kid in my organization like they’re my own,’ Perkins posted to X.
It’s not clear which of his players Perkins was defending. His son, Kenxton, is a member of the team.
He explained his side of the incident again on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on his home network.
‘It’s my organization. Right? Young Perkins Global. And we were in the tournament. It’s a heated game, you know, 17U, they’re going back and forth, whatever,’ Perkins explained.
‘We end up winning the game. All right, cool. Well, the other team, they had this guy that’s like 7 foot, 400 pounds. After the game, he comes and he body slams one of my kids that play for my team.
‘So I stay seated, then I get up because everybody running around, the players, they about to fight. So as a responsible, you know, owner of the organization, I get up and I’m like, “hey man, y’all need to chill, you know, X, Y, Z.” I’m grabbing my players.
‘I tell the coach of the other team, I’m like, “hey bro, get your players. I got mine.” He pop off “I ain’t getting nothing. I ain’t getting nothing. Who the hell are you?” I’m like, bro, just get your players so I can get mine, we [can] get up out of here.
‘He got smart with me again. That’s when I got pissed off. I’m like, “bro, who the hell are you talking to?” [he said] “I’m talking to you.”‘
Perkins explained an opposing team’s player ‘body slammed’ one of his players
Perkins said after the verbal altercation, he reconciled with the opposing coach
Perkins added, ‘Now, what people didn’t see was after that, we had a little exchange. Yeah, they held us back or whatever. Held them back. Held me back. And then afterwards, we dapped up. He said, my bad. I said, my bad. And we kept it moving.’
Later on the show, Perkins explained, ‘The kid that got slammed to the ground, his parents wasn’t at the game, so his parents trust me with their child. So I gotta protect that child as if he’s mine.
‘I’m gonna stand up for him even though I didn’t go over there with bad intentions. I gotta make sure that that kid is okay and he make it back home to his parents.
‘He’s a young man, but again, he plays in my organization, so I gotta make sure by every means necessary that he’s safe.’
Perkins’ agent, Kennard McGuire, told TMZ, ‘Kendrick is very passionate about everything, especially when it involves his kids. We’re not going to waste water on an imaginary fire.’
Perkins previously went viral for getting ejected from an AAU game he coached in 2023
This is not the first time Perkins has attracted headlines for his antics at AAU games.
Back in 2023, Perkins was ejected from a game – with the coach explaining himself on the air with ESPN’s ‘NBA Today.’
‘I’m trying to ask the ref a question on why would he eject one of my players and he would not talk to me and when he didn’t give me an answer, I blew a gasket,’ Perkins explained at the time.
‘He tried to kick me out the game, I was like, “I’m not going anywhere.” First of all, I done spent thousands of dollars to come to Vegas for this tournament. I’m not leaving the gym.’
He concluded, ‘At the end of the day, I was pissed off. I was just trying to ask him a question and he was ignoring me.’
