Draymond Green and Baron Davis believe Kendrick Perkins was out of line for his recent comments regarding a current NBA player.
Kawhi Leonard is undergoing a career-derailing crisis, with each of his last four seasons with the Clippers being severely affected by injuries. The 2024-25 campaign was supposed to begin differently for "The Klaw" until news broke of him being indefinitely ruled out with the same issue that forced him to skip most of the 2024 playoffs.
However, instead of supporting Leonard in his trying time, Perkins went the nuclear route by urging the two-time Finals MVP to announce his retirement.
Perkins' comments left Green and Davis very peeved on the latest "Draymond Green Show," where they blasted the ESPN analyst for questioning if Leonard had "cheated the game" or even the Clippers organization.
"To hear Perk say, 'Yeah, he needs to retire, he needs to consider retiring,' I thought that was crazy," Green said. "Because Perk, in his last three years in the NBA, nobody was pushing him into retirement, and everybody probably should have. The man averaged 2.5 points [per game] for three years straight and nobody was pushing you to retire. Guys like LeBron [James] and KD [Kevin Durant] were actually inviting him to their teams, like they [were] kind of cheerleading for him. And to push this man into retirement, like obviously the man wants to play."
Davis was even more scathing in his criticism, asking Perkins to "know your place" and not pass judgments on the future of an all-time great player. The former Warriors guard said the comments would have had credibility if they came from Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce, Perkins' Celtics teammates, as they were also great players such as Leonard.
"You probably took three years of a young dude's salary [by staying in the league]," Davis said of Perkins playing into his mid-30s. "You can't speak ill will on nobody that's performing at a high, high level [like Leonard]. You don't know his injuries. And that's what I hate when the media think you always need a hot take. No, sometimes just park it, pass it to KG or Paul."
Meanwhile, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was very supportive of his franchise star ahead of his team's season opener against the Suns on Wednesday. Ballmer said that Leonard was "in the building" at Intuit Dome.
"We have one of the greatest players ever on our team, and he will play again this season," a hyped Ballmer said of Leonard.
