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Kendrick Perkins Addresses His Racial Nikola Jokic MVP Take

Kendrick Perkins addressed his controversial Nikola Jokic take
Kendrick Perkins Addresses His Racial Nikola Jokic MVP Take
Kendrick Perkins Addresses His Racial Nikola Jokic MVP Take

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During a recent episode of Patrick Beverley's Pat Bev Podcast, ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins addressed his controversial Nikola Jokic take from earlier this season. Suggesting that Jokic benefited from the racial bias of white MVP voters, Perkins create a lot of controversy, most notably with his colleague JJ Redick.

"Here's the thing," Perkins said. "The only problem that I had with JJ, is when he said I accused people of being racist. I never accused nobody of being racist, bro... I never said that. Now, racially biased? Okay, cool. Like I told JJ off record, when Obama ran for President, I know black people out of my community that never voted in their life. Me personally, I never voted in my life. You know I rushed to go vote for Obama because I actually wanted to see a black President in office. Does that make me racist? Does that make a black person racist? No."

Redick and Perkins got heated during the First Take segment, and tensions were much higher than usually seen on that show. This is something that Stephen A. Smith recently admitted, saying, "First of all, it can go too far. Secondly, in that particular show, it did go too far. I thought both of them were wrong to a degree, in terms of how far it went."

As Perkins explained during his podcast appearance, he didn't believe his comments about racial bias should have been portrayed as him accusing the voters of being racist. 

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Joey Linn
JOEY LINN

Joey Linn is a credentialed writer covering the NBA and WNBA for On SI. Covering the LA Clippers independently in 2018, then for Fansided and 213Hoops from 2019-2021, Joey joined On SI to cover the Clippers after the 2020-21 season. Graduating from Biola University in 2022 with a Communication Studies degree, Joey served as Biola's play-by-play announcer for their basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer teams. Joey's work on Biola's broadcasts and in the classroom earned him the Outstanding Communication Studies Student of the year award in 2022. Joey covers the NBA full-time, primarily serving as a Clippers beat writer.