NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal’s savage response to Kendrick Perkins’ fiery accusation

The NBA regular season has now officially concluded and given way to the postseason, which began on Tuesday evening with Play-In games between the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans (ironically in a rematch from Sunday afternoon) as well as a contest between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings, who faced off in last year’s first round. The fact that Warriors star Stephen Curry and Lakers star LeBron James both find themselves in the Play-In tournament this year speaks to the immense parity now existing in the NBA landscape, parity that has also extended over to the award’s ballots, where former players and media moguls alike now have votes for accolades such as league MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and more.

Two of the most prominent members of the NBA media today are Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, both of whom regularly appear on TNT’s Inside the NBA and have been accused of downplaying the success of the New York Knicks this season, who are the number two seed in the Eastern Conference.

Recently, former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins, who now works as an analyst for ESPN, took aim at the two Hall of Famers during an appearance on The Michael Kay Show.

“Obviously they don’t watch basketball,” said Perkins, per Karl Rasmussen of Sports Illustrated. “I’m serious, they can’t watch basketball on a consistent basis. The only time they actually probably watch the Knicks are when they’re covering the Knicks on their game nights.”

O’Neal, who has been known to ignite a feud or two throughout his legendary career, quickly took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to fire back at Perkins under a tweet from NBA Central reporting on Perkins’ remarks.

“Can a non hall of famer speak on two hall of famers just asking,” wondered O’Neal.

The state of NBA discourse

Of course, the current sports media landscape is one that lacks a whole lot of nuance. Programs such as Inside the NBA and ESPN’s NBA Today frequently feature commentators arguing opposite sides of the same issue while speaking in great generalities as opposed to dissecting actual plays or other strategical elements of the game. Perhaps this explains why the recent Mind The Game podcast featuring LeBron James and JJ Redick, which takes the time to dissect specific strategies and X’s and O’s, felt like such a revelation to fans.

Perkins himself recently came under fire when it was revealed that he had voted Golden State Warriors rookie Brandin Podziemski–a decent defender but not generally regarded as a stopper on that end–to his All-Defensive team over names like Jaylen Brown and other, objectively stronger defenders.

That decision, along with some of Perkins’ other bizarre ballot choices–made some call into question how much Perkins himself watches the NBA outside of large market teams such as Podziemski’s team (the Warriors) and of course the Knicks.

In any case, NBA fans should prepare themselves for many ever-shifting narratives to be spewed in national NBA media circles over the coming weeks as the postseason gets underway.