Every time a prominent NBA player follows or unfollows another prominent NBA player, the Twitter account NBA Alerts announces the change. Throughout a season, there are many good reasons why media people and active athletes might follow and unfollow one another, but occasionally, an update sticks out. LeBron James reportedly made the decision to unfollow several users on X on Friday, including ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins, Ben Simmons, and Blake Griffin. On Monday, the First Take crew made the perplexing choice to discuss LeBron James unfollowing ESPN commentator Kendrick Perkins on social media for 12 minutes.
On his podcast Mind the Game a few days prior to the NBA Finals, LeBron James gave Dallas Mavericks player Kyrie Irving kudos for reaching the championship round once more. James complimented him and said that although he was happy for him. In the 2016 NBA Finals, the two helped the Cleveland Cavaliers pull off an incredible comeback victory over the Golden State Warriors. Perkins called James out for purposefully interrupting the discourse, as Perkins understood the remark to be. LeBron apparently unfollowed Perk after this comment. Then, on Monday, First Take invited Perkins to discuss being unfollowed despite the NBA Finals going on.
Kendrick Perkins Calls LeBron James Sensitive For Unfollowing Him
“Imagine unfollowing me on Twitter, but you still gotta wake up and watch me on TV every day because I ain’t going nowhere any time soon,” Kendrick Perkins said. “That’s no. 1. No. 2, I think LeBron James got sensitive over the last couple weeks because I’ve been calling him out or have to speak on certain things that he may disagree with — like the firing of Darvin Ham or the coaching search for the Lakers, or even having to touch on the Bronny James situation when it comes down to dealing with the draft.” Perkins clarified that he was dissatisfied after years of publicly defending James.
Kendrick Perkins said, “Bron, I’ve been knowing you since 1999, brother.” He continued, "We played AAU basketball together… We played in the McDonald’s All-American Game together. We were in the same draft. You have my phone number! If you had a problem with anything I said, we could’ve picked up the phone and had a conversation, but instead, you took to the public. You knew the world was gonna see it, eventually, that you unfollowed me because they have all these stalkers that have their stuff on alert. We’re living in weird times.” Overall, Big Perk might be the most sensitive person in this situation.
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