Kendrick Perkins on Kevin Durant Twitter Beef: Intention Was to Praise Westbrook

Former NBA center Kendrick Perkins said Friday he wasn't taking a shot at Kevin Durant when he wrote on Twitter that Russell Westbrook was the best player to ever wear an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey.

The comment led to a sharp rebuke from Durant, who called out his former OKC teammate as part of an extended exchange Thursday night on the social media platform.

Perkins appeared on the Scal and Pals show Friday to clear up the situation from his perspective.

"Clearly, I'm not saying that Russell Westbrook is the best player in that he's a better player than Kevin Durant, right?" he said. "I'm saying that when you talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder, Russell Westbrook is Mr. Thunder."

Perkins went on to call Durant's decision to join the Golden State Warriors the "weakest move in NBA history" and expanded on his original thought:

"That was my whole point. Like, why do you even care? First of all, you ... left that organization for dead. Like, you thought when you left that organization, you thought that that organization would go to nothing. And Russell Westbrook kept that organization afloat. He never missed the playoffs, he always kept them in the middle of the hunt, he did what he was supposed to do. He won the MVP, he did all types of things. So, why not—and like I said, my whole argument wasn't to shoot a slug at KD; my whole argument was to rightfully praise Russell Westbrook for what he deserves."

Here's a look at the complete interview, via Radio.com Sports:

The duo played together with the Thunder for four years from February 2011 to February 2015.

Perkins currently works as an ESPN NBA analyst, while Durant is expected to miss the 2019-20 season while recovering from a ruptured Achilles suffered during the 2019 NBA Finals. He joined the Brooklyn Nets in July after three seasons and two championships with the Warriors.