“Wake up every day… Be a better person. Be better at your f*cking craft.” Kendrick Perkins recently clarified the short-term goals a person should have. The long-term goals obviously differ from person to person. Having played 14 years in the NBA and winning a championship, you’d think that Perk would be sorted with his long-term goals. But the former Boston Celtics star wants something even better now.

“My long-term goal is for my next career that I’ve started to be better than my last career. And that’s saying a lot. But that’s my goal,” Perk revealed in Celebrity Barber Burger Brown’s YouTube video. Now, it’s not as if his NBA career was not noteworthy enough. You do not survive in the league for over a decade for nothing.

Kendrick Perkins was the 27th pick in the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high school. Yep, just like LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and some other big names, Perk decided to skip college for the league. Spending the first half of his career with the Celtics, he won the 2008 NBA championship.

While he developed some decent rebounding and defensive skills in the middle of his career, however, the numbers never stood as exceptional. So it’s only right that Perk wants the next phase of his career–sports media–to be much better.

And it seems his efforts have been paying off as ESPN re-signed him to a new multi-year extension deal. Going forward, the ’08 NBA champ will be a constant part of ABC editions of NBA Countdown along with ESPN’s counterpart of the show. Apart from this NBA Today, Get Up, First Take, SportsCenter and Hoop Streams will also be regulars for the ex-Celtics star. However, Perkins’ foray into sports media was never part of a grand plan.

Kendrick Perkins had no set purpose for entering the field of sports media

On an episode of The Old Man and the Three podcast, Perk revealed that his media career came about purely by chance. “It happened by accident. You know how they have those classes you can take in the summer while you are playing? I never took those. I never had interest in being on TV or in the media, but I always respected the media as a player,” he admitted.

The turning point came when Perkins received a direct message on X from a producer of Undisputed, asking if he would be interested in appearing on the show alongside Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe. Perkins enthusiastically accepted the opportunity, saying, “Hell yeah.” His appearance was so well-received that the show extended his stay for another day. Eventually, they invited him back to cover the remainder of the playoffs.

Perkins’ bold predictions and confident takes during this time caught the attention of ESPN. He shared that they reached out through X as well, inviting him to their headquarters in Bristol. Furthermore, his first appearance on Get Up created a viral moment when he remarked that Kawhi Leonard mimics Michael Jordan, a take that propelled him further into the spotlight. Rest, as we all know, is the history of Perk’s rise in sports media.

But just because it all started by accident, Perk never took the job lightly. His takes can be controversial but he brings traction. And he intends to do even better, as he revealed on the podcast.