Former NFL head coach Dennis Green had one of the greatest meltdown/rants in modern history.
During that epic tire Green had one memorable line that fits so well with this story. “If you wanna crown em, then crown em.”
Since acquiring Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, people from different circles have felt the need to crown the Los Angeles Lakers the 2013 NBA champs before a single tip of the ball.
Some players have even gone out on a limb and made the Lakers the favorite. I see that as gamesmanship myself, heap the pressure on them early.
One player ;not feeling the early coronation of the Lakers is Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins.
In an interview with the Oklahoman via Sports-Kings Perkins let his feelings be known.
“I just said it’s time to go to work,” Thunder center Kendrick Perkins said about Howard joining the Lakers. “I knew the hype was going to be over there on that end and all that. But I’m glad the attention is off us because we’re the type that likes to put our hard hats on and do stuff and keep it under the radar. And at the end of the day, when you look at the box score, Oklahoma won. That’s the way we like to keep it.”
“We are the Western Conference champs,”Perkins told Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman. “So at the end of the day, we’re not chasing nobody except for the ring. We’re chasing Miami to get a championship. It’s no guarantee who is going to be where. But we earned the Western champs so we’re not chasing the Lakers, we’re chasing a championship and that’s what it’s about.”
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a shot fired.
Kendrick is just making you all aware the Thunder still reign supreme out west until otherwise noted.