Thunder center Kendrick Perkins hears ‘MVP’ chants in his head, and that’s cool
When the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player suffered a broken right foot in the preseason, the focus turned from Kevin Durant to Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook. But when the three-time All-Star point guard suffered a fractured right hand, it appeared Oklahoma City was all out of potential MVP candidates.
Except in the mind of Kendrick Perkins.
Limited to only nine players on the active roster, the Thunder received a standing ovation after storming to a 24-17 lead against a surprisingly competitive Sacramento Kings squad. Somewhere in the hooting and hollering inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, Perkins thought he heard a three-letter chat directed at him.
Or he simply imagined them. We’ll let the Daily Thunder’s Royce Young explain.
Perk on getting a standing ovation in the first quarter: “It felt good. I thought I heard a couple MVP chants.” I told him I didn’t hear any of those. “Yeah, neither did I. Just in my head.” Perk is the best.
In Boston, Perk was a beast — even warranting a blog dedicated to him by that name — earning a reputation as the hard-fouling, mean-mugging sidekick to Kevin Garnett in a defensive-minded Celtics frontcourt that scrapped its way to an NBA championship in 2008. The C’s nearly did it again in 2010, taking a 3-2 lead in another finals against the Lakers before Perkins tore two ligaments in his right knee.
Three weeks after returning from his injury, he was traded to OKC at the 2011 deadline for Jeff Green. The Celtics lost their edge, and Doc Rivers has since maintained the mantra that his Boston teams never lost a playoff series with a healthy starting lineup of Perkins, Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.
At the time, the Thunder viewed the deal as a winfall, acquiring a center that provided the toughness they lacked upon winning 50 games and losing in the first round the previous season. They reached the 2011 Western Conference finals and the 2012 NBA Finals with Perk starting at center — losing to the eventual NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat, respectively — but his production (10.1 points, 7.6 boards and 1.7 blocks in 27.6 minutes a night during his final healthy season in Boston) started to slip.
Still, the Thunder rewarded Perkins with a four-year, $34.8 million extension after that first half-season in Oklahoma City, and that’s where things went south. He was never a $9 million a year player — not then and certainly not now — but he’s been held to that standard ever since putting pen to paper.
Things got so bad that Perkins became a leading candidate for the amnesty clause each season after the most recent collective bargaining agreement, and he joined a short list for the league’s least valuable players. He lost his starting job to Steven Adams this summer, but the amnesty never came.
Now, on an undermanned roster, he’s become a vital piece in OKC’s hopes of treading water until Durant and Westbrook return for what could be a rather difficult playoff chase. So, while Perkins may not be a Most Valuable Player candidate, we’ll excuse his imaginary praise after likely hearing LVP chants in recent years.
