Kendrick Perkins is pretty terrible in the game of basketball so he really only has one job at this stage of his career which is to be a goon. He can’t help you on offense and he really can’t guard anyone on defensive so his best defensive is to take things to the street. Case in point, last night after Perk had a minor issue with Mason Plumlee, he decided to take it out on Damian Lillard and wound up looking like he was trying to take his head off.
@IamJoeSports
Kendrick Perkins tried to bring the WWE to the NBA….?https://t.co/aWUUsH2hUQ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 19, 2016
As you would expect, Lillard didn’t take kindly to the play. “It was dirty for sure, but it’s a physical game,” Lillard said. “Some guys impact their team just by doing stuff like that. Maybe that’s his way of impacting their team. I don’t know, but I’m from Oakland. I’ve been punched before. I’ve been tackled before. It was a cheap play, but to me it didn’t feel as bad as it might have looked. My focus is on winning the game, and it was probably two points easier than it probably would have been if I had gotten to the rim.”
Plumlee seconded Lillard’s thought as well:
“I thought it was a dirty play,” Plumlee said. “The way it looked in the moment, it didn’t look good. I think the refs made the right call but between me and him, there was nothing. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to hurt people, which wouldn’t be cool. When you see a guy go down on a similar play to a horse-collar tackle in football, it is not a good look.”
Perkins will likely be suspended for the play and he should. When you sign someone like Perkins you know why you want him but there has to be limits to playing physical compared to playing dirty.