“That is not a sentence I thought I would hear this Friday,” was Malika Andrews’ reaction after Kendrick Perkins compared Victor Wembanyama to himself on national television. Perhaps Andrews voiced what fans thought. No disrespect to Perkins, but comparing a generational talent who is already one of the best players in the league in his third year, perhaps belittles the awe with which fans watch the San Antonio Spurs stars. 

On Thursday, Wembanyama led the Spurs to a double-digit win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs star had 29 points in just 34 minutes into the game. For his height, operating in the paint is child’s play for Wembanyama. Despite that, he has refused to limit his game like a big man, and the game against the Mavs was a testament to that. 15 of his 29 points came from 3-pointers, and Perkins had considerable praise for Wemby.

“Real quick, Victor Wembenyama, he refused to let us put him in the box, right? Like, people were complaining that we want him to go more inside, but he took those tray balls yesterday, and he’s knocking them down,” Perkins said about the Spurs star’s game plan against the Dallas Mavericks.

All true. However, it was what Pekins said next that tested fans’ patience.

“He’s a prime example of me. While everybody else is going, no, here’s why, because while everybody else is going right, I typically go left. And that’s what he does,” Perkins added, drawing laughter from the panel. 

Although Perkins wasn’t comparing Wembanyama to himself in terms of what they could do on the court, it was tough to ignore his comments.

Kendrick Perkins’ comments about Victor Wembanyama leave fans fuming

While some fans found the comment so absurd it was funny, with one joking that ‘Perk been working on his stand-up,’ others were enraged by the comparison. But the mere unseriousness of the take also left fans enraged.

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Complex once hailed his entertainment value, but now fans wonder if those same “raw takes” that launched his media stardom have finally crossed the line. He received 8 out of 10 for entertainment and 7 for basketball knowledge. Over the years, along with Stephen A. Smith, Perkins has created most of the internet’s memes.

Perkins is not as crisp as the other panel members. He relies on his raw take, and that, on many occasions, has left fans confused. “I can’t tell if Perk just says this stuff for branding purposes or if he actually thinks he was elite.”

To be fair to the former NBA player, he didn’t compare Wembanyama’s talent to his own. He was merely talking about the similarities in their mentality. Perkins prided himself on being a defensive big man inside the paint, and even in that, he would perhaps not keep himself over Wembanyama. While the internet was enraged with the caption, a fan came to Perkins’ defense, saying “clearly nobody watched the whole clip or don’t care.”

While Big Perk has all the knowledge of basketball, fans have long watched him blurt out one-liners and attribute lines to his grandparents, a style rooted in the Beaumont household where his grandma Mary and grandpa Raymond raised him and filled his life with the kind of Southern sayings he now drops on ESPN panels.

The growing frustration was palpable, with one fan demanding Perkins’ removal, saying, “Get him off the air man.”

Perkins has been a regular part of the new ESPN crew since the network’s controversial decision in 2024. ESPN laid off prominent names, including acclaimed NBA writer Zach Lowe. “They fired Zach Lowe and kept this man btw,” Perkins’ comments enraged fans as they slammed the network for keeping faces like Perkins for clickbait on and getting rid of analysts like Lowe for cost-cutting.

As hard as it is for fans to accept Perkins’ take, he is not any different from when he joined ESPN in 2019. He gave hyperbolic, polarizing takes then, and he operates with a similar personality now.