Here's Kendrick Perkins Comparing His OKC Teammates To Today's Thunder Squad

At this point, analysts like Kendrick Perkins are probably running out of flowery words to describe the Oklahoma City Thunder’s dominant run. Leave it to Perkins, though, to dish out high praise while raising not a few eyebrows.

Speaking on “NBA Today” prior to the Thunder’s NBA Cup semifinal game against the Phoenix Suns, the ESPN personality turned back the clock and spoke about his Thunder teammates back in the day. According to Perkins, today’s iteration of OKC is able to do something better than the original Thunder big three.

“The biggest thing for me is the sacrificing part of it,” he said. “That was the problem with KD, Russ, James [Harden], Serge [Ibaka]. They weren’t willing to do what these guys are doing right now in today’s game.”

Shots fired, perhaps?

After all, Perkins is talking about three future Hall of Famers and a one-time NBA champion with the Toronto Raptors. The most interesting part of all this is the mention of Durant’s name. Throughout the years, Durant and Perkins have had an interesting dynamic, as they have expressed both mutual respect and not-so-respectful disagreement ever since Perkins transitioned into the analyst role.

For more reasons than one, the talented trio of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden reached the NBA Finals just once during their stint in Oklahoma City. That was in 2012, when they fell in five games to the Miami Heat. Meanwhile, the young 2020s core of the Thunder powered through a tough Western Conference this past season and went all the way to claim the Larry O’Brien trophy in June.

While Perkins isn’t suggesting that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren are more skillful players than his ex-teammates, he believes that the feisty team coached by Mark Daigneault has done a better job of displaying selflessness on the court, thus becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

It will be interesting to see if Durant, Westbrook, or Harden responds to the outspoken individual who used to share a locker room with them. In any case, Perkins will continue to heap praise upon the current version of the Thunder as long as they continue to obliterate the competition.