Kobe Bryant’s Long-Forgotten Kendrick Perkins Praise Becomes Ex-NFL Player’s Ultimate Weapon in Ja Morant Beef

Kendrick Perkins made a bold claim about Ja Morant that went viral on the internet. On Monday, during his appearance on the 'Out The Mud' podcast, the former NBA player said that his relationship with Morant had soured over time.

Perkins said that he had supported Morant since the start. However, after starting to call out Morant because of issues surrounding him, including flashing a gun during a livestream, their relationship soured.

However, it was Perkins's next comment that was largely decried on the internet. Perkins said that he was the reason that fans "recognized" him.

"Guess what? Not only does [getting in trouble] make you look bad, it makes me look bad because they recognized you because of me speaking highly of you," Perkins said. "It ain't no coincidence that you went from having three games on ESPN national television, that you had 52."

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Kendrick Perkins's comments were not received well by "Speakeasy" hosts, especially Kieran Hickey-Semple. Kieran said that Perkins was making a mistake in thinking that he was the star.

However, when hosts questioned Perkins's credibility to speak about a player of Ja Morant's caliber, former NFL player Emmanuel Acho defended the player-turned-analyst by recalling Kobe Bryant's praise for Perkins after the 2008 NBA Finals.

"It was Kobe who said Perkins was one of the best big defenders in the game," Acho said. "...Kobe Bryant's opinion on Kendrick Perkins should be more important than ours, sitting in the studio." "What you all are doing is as bad as Perk is doing. You have the audacity to think you all know so much about basketball that you will discredit a top 10 player of all time in Kobe Bryant, one of the most cerebral players that the game has ever seen, who credited Perk."

During the heated debate, one of the hosts pulled up Kendrick Perkins's career statistics. Kieran later pulled up Perkins' numbers from the 2008 NBA Finals against the LA Lakers. During the championship series, the former NBA players averaged 4.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists in 18 minutes.

Ja Morant comes up with a fiery response to Kendrick Perkins

Kendrick Perkins's comments were met with ridicule on the internet. But it was Ja Morant's response that made their beef even more public. The Memphis Grizzlies star reposted Perkins's comments with a fiery response.

"you da reason for my notoriety perk? come on dawg . 😂 you showing em why ion fw yo kind," Morant wrote on X.

Ja Morant is still one of the most recognizable faces in the league today. However, his off-court troubles have taken a bit hit on his overall image.

Edited by Nandjee Ranjan