Perk didn’t LeBron forcing his name back into the headlines. Kyrie Irving is back in the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks, and all eyes are on him as he returns to TD Garden to face off against his old team, the Boston Celtics. That includes his former teammate LeBron James, who recently had some intriguing comments about Irving, saying he’s “fuc*ing mad” that the two are no longer teammates.Given James’s potential free agency this offseason, some fans wondered whether he could try to reunite with Irving. However, Kendrick Perkins wasn’t too pleased with James’ comments, and he bashed him for trying to make things all about him ahead of the 2024 NBA Finals.
Perkins takes aim at James
LeBron and Kyrie played together with the Cleveland Cavaliers for three seasons and made it to the Finals every year, with one run yielding their lone title together. Irving requested a trade in 2017, though, and he ended up landing with the Celtics.
Since then, Irving has had a bit of a rocky road. He tried to reunite with James on both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Mavs. Now that he has finally returned to the Finals without LBJ, Perkins believes the superstar forward is simply trying to hog the spotlight once again.
“Well, why is he so mad?” Perk said on NBA on ESPN. “He had a chance to get him…Here we go again, ‘Bron weaseling his way into somebody else’s moment. This is not about you; your team is at home. This is about the Mavs and the Celtics, but yet, you so mad and disappointed that you’re not Kyrie Irving’s running mate no more. Here we go again.”
Even though the Lakers got eliminated in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, there’s a new story about them and James every day. Whether it has to do with his free agency, Bronny James’ draft status, or the team’s head coach search, the purple and gold still dominate the media space.
And just when the narrative finally began to shift to the Finals after a week of no basketball, LeBron made these comments about Irving. It may just be a coincidence, but if you ask Perk, he thinks he’s just trying to push himself back into the headlines.
Could “King James” be trying to control the offseason’s main storylines like a puppet master behind the scenes? Maybe, but he could have simply been reminiscing about the time he had shared with Kyrie. Not everything James says has to be for his own gain.
Given that the Mavs have made it to the Finals with Irving on their roster, this duo isn’t reuniting unless the 39-year-old finds his way to Dallas. Perkins may be irritated with LBJ, but he may also just be sick of the LeBron-centric offseason the league has endured over the past few weeks.