Kendrick Perkins Responds to Kevin Durant Calling Him a 'Sell Out' on Instagram

Kendrick Perkins responded to Kevin Durant calling him a "sell out" Friday, saying his disagreement with Kyrie Irving does not mean he's stopped fighting for the black community. 

"KD, my brother. Just because I don't agree with what Kyrie got going on don't mean I'm not fighting the same fight that you all are fighting," Perkins said Friday on ESPN's First Take. "I am fighting for African Americans, I been have. And that don't make you a sellout, that don't make me a sellout because I have a different opinion or disagree with someone else that's going about it another way. I actually applaud anybody that's fighting the fight right now in America."

Durant called Perkins out on social media this week, saying he was a "sell out" and retweeting a video of the former NBA center airballing a shot. Perkins previously called Irving, one of Durant's best friends, a "distraction" for advocating players not resume the 2019-20 season in Orlando. 

"You don't know what I'm going through right now in my personal life fighting the fight. I live in a million-dollar community. I'm fighting the fight every day in my own community," Perkins said. "I'm the only African American family that live in this community, and my wife and I have to fight a fight with our home association and neighbors every day through email so much that we not even comfortable with having our kids go outside without supervision."

Perkins added he's used his ESPN platform and social media to express his views on the Black Lives Matter movement and other racial issues since the killing of George Floyd. He said he had an hour-and-a-half conversation with Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge as part of his attempts to have figures around the league speak up about racial injustice.

"KD, for you to call your brother a sellout, man, ay, come on, dog," Perkins said. "You know my love is for you, you know what my love is and my heart is for you. ... 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."