“I Still Love You to This Day My Brother”: Kendrick Perkins Gives an Emotional Response to Kevin Durant Calling Him a Sellout

Kendrick Perkins updated fans that he would address the buzz that Kevin Durant created around him. The former Celtics champion delivered and went on air to clear the air around his name. Here’s what he had to say.

Why Kendrick Perkins cried on air

When Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant called Kendrick Perkins a ‘sellout’, it hurt the latter. After indulging in a Twitter war with sports writer Skip Bayless, Perk talked about the issue on ESPN’s ‘First Take’.

When the show’s host Molly Qerim Rose asked Perkins for a response about the issue, Perkins first cleared one thing out. Addressing Kevin Durant and calling him “brother”, Perk said that just because he didn’t agree with Kyrie Irving’s stand about the resuming season, didn’t mean he wasn’t involved in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, or “fighting the same fight”.

Perk went on to recall several incidents he had dealt with regarding racism, right in his neighborhood, or at his kids’ schools. He kept emphasizing that he was also fighting his own battles and going through things.

Talking about KD calling him a sellout, Kendrick Perkins said,

“I am fighting for African-Americans, I been have. That don’t make you a sellout. That don’t make me a seel-out because I have a different opinion and disagree with someone else that’s going about it another way. I actually applaud anybody who is fighting a fight, right now, in America.”

After listing the various ways in which he had been a supportive voice for the BLM movement, Perkins recalled a moment from his life and that of KD, when they were going through personal issues together.

“Don’t tell me nothing about being a sellout, cause that ain’t even for me and you, brother. Let me remind you something. The same sellout that’s sitting right here, I remember it like it was yesterday,” Perkins said.

He continued,

“May 8, 2011, mother’s day. You and I, Memphis, Tennessee, going through some personal problems. You came to my room, we vented, we cried together, we cried some more, vented some more. We didn’t leave that room until we confined in each other.”

Perkins also revealed how the duo felt grateful to have each other to lean on.

“So KD, to call your brother a sell out, man, aye, come on dog. You know my love is for you. You know what my love is, what my heart is for you.”

Perkins also mentioned KD’s relationship with the Perkins family, that is his wife, Vanity Perkins, and their kids. The 2008 Championship winner let KD know that Vanity Perkins, who Perk called KD’s sister, still had love for the Nets power forward. He also talked about KD’s relationship with his Perk’s children.

“They used to say ‘hey, what’s up uncle KD’, and you used to play fight with them. They still got love for you today.”

Then Perkins came to himself.

“By the way, this same sellout, this brother, that’s sitting right here on this ESPN platform, talking to you today, I still love you to this day my brother. And imma leave it at that.”

The commentators went on to talk about their perspectives about the KD-Perkins situation as well as racism, further into the show. Reminding viewers about the meaning and effect of the word ‘sellout’, commentator Stephen A. Smith chimed in with words of empathy for a teared up Kendrick Perkins.

Perk pulled himself together as the discussion continued.