Kendrick Perkins Is Sure the Sacramento Kings Are Still the Kings
Many a person is impressed by the Sacramento Kings' hot start to the 2014-15 season.
Kendrick Perkins is not one of those people. He sees the Sacramento Kings for who the Sacramento Kings really are.
The Sacramento Kings.
Prior to the Oklahoma City Thunder's 101-93 victory over Sacramento on Sunday night, Perkins attempted to inspire his teammates with a not-so-flattering assessment of the Kings' existence.
Audio of his rousing pregame speech can be heard here, courtesy of The Oklahoman's Anthony Slater (h/t NBC Sports). It is definitely not suitable to be viewed at work, church gatherings, toddler play dates or any place where spirited F-bombs are not appreciated.
"These (expletive) are still the Sacramento Kings," he apparently says.
Yours truly vaguely remembers hearing a similarly enlivening diatribe in every single Limp Bizkit song—sans the basketball context. Fred Durst would be proud of Perkins, who, as it turns out, had a very busy Sunday night.
In addition to registering nine points, five rebounds, one steal and two blocks against the Kings, Perkins earned a standing ovation from the Oklahoma City crowd—his first in roughly 17 decades—during the first quarter. He may have even been mistaken for Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Reggie Jackson or, shoot, even Sebastian Telfair in the process.
“It felt good," he told Daily Thunder's Royce Young. "I thought I heard a couple MVP chants."
There were no real, live "M-V-P" chants. When Young said he didn't hear them, Perkins promptly added another gem to his Sunday night exploits.
“Yeah, neither did I," he admitted. "Just in my head.”
Centers with wild imaginations and elven dwarfs controlling the temporal lobes of their brains hear the darndest things.
As for what Perkins said about the Kings, well, he's technically not alone. Though they possess the Western Conference's fourth-highest winning percentage and the league's eighth-best defense, they haven't earned unconditional faith after only seven games. They remain one of the NBA's greatest unknowns and still have a lot to prove before skeptics like Perkins start waving purple and black flags.
"In a league where it sometimes feels like everyone’s either dominant or tanking, it’s awesome to add a team that’s too weird to fit into either category," Grantland's Andrew Sharp wrote. "These are the NBA’s lost boys, and Boogie is their Peter Pan. ... From here, we’ll find out pretty quickly whether this team is for real."
Tougher tests lie ahead as the Kings prep for a five-game stretch that pits them against the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls. By the end of that streak, we should know whether these Kings are serious about their return to winning or whether they're the lottery-lost Kings that Perkins claims to know.
