Charles Barkley Absolutely Slams Kendrick Perkins For Comments About White Players Winning NBA MVP

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Former NBA center and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins found himself in the news for the all the wrong reasons on Tuesday.

Or, depending on who you ask, it was for all the right reasons.

Perkins got into a heated exchange with fellow former NBA star turned analyst over comments he made on ESPN First Take about white players winning the NBA MVP award.

“When it comes down to guys winning MVP since 1990, it’s only three guys that won the MVP that wasn’t top 10 in scoring… Steve Nash, Jokic, and Dirk Nowitzki. What do those guys have in common?” Perkins asked Stephen A. Smith  on the show last week.

Redick took exception to the insinuation and fired back today.

“It is an honor to be on this desk every day, but what we just witnessed is the problem with this show,” he said.

“Where we create narratives that do not exist in reality. The implication — what you are implying — that the white voters that vote on NBA are racist, that they favor white people. You just said that,” Redick said to Perkins, who immediately shifted into denial mode.

Perkins responded by saying that he was only stating facts.

Charles Barkley Says Kendrick Perkins Makes ‘Zero Sense’

Now another former NBA star, one with a much bigger platform, is weighing in.

Basketball Hall of Famer and 1983 NBA MVP Charles Barkley went on Altitude Sports Radio in Denver and said that Perkins crossed the line.

“That’s asinine and silly,” Barkley said of Perkins’ take. “Asinine, silly and stupid. Pick one of the words, whatever one you want.”

“One of the things that’s silly about ESPN at times, they do this silly debate every year about the MVP, going back to even when I played,” Barkley continued. “They did it a lot with LeBron, which makes me laugh, too. Derrick Rose won it. He deserved it. Kevin Durant won it. He deserved it. It’s a regular season award. It ain’t who the best player is. It’s who had the best regular season, but every year ESPN gets these fools on radio and TV to talk about who’s the best player…They have these silly things every year and it’s really just, that’s the silliness of these morning talk shows.” – via Awful Announcing

Barkley then explained that Perkins’ reasoning made “zero sense” to him because only five white players have won the NBA MVP in the last 30 years despite there being more white voters than black voters.

Jokic, 28, is looking to win his third-consecutive NBA MVP awards. Only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird have accomplished that feat before.