Former NBA star and ESPN sports analyst Kendrick Perkins got angry at a kid’s AAU game and almost threw a tantrum, so the referee threw him out way before he could cause more trouble, and Twitter is having a field day.
The thing is, Perkings was on the field coaching his own team before he was kicked out. According to him, he wanted some clarity, and no one was answering, hence his rage.
AAU officiating is a big topic on NBA Twitter today and things are heating up even more as the day progresses. Now we’ve learned that Kendrick Perkins was tossed out of an AAU game he was coaching this weekend for arguing with an official. And his NBA Today colleagues unearthed footage of the incident.
Just amazing.
I think the best part of this isn’t that an ESPN personality got thrown out of an AAU game, it’s that the game clearly involved young children. This wasn’t a high-stakes high school tournament. It was for kids.
.@KendrickPerkins was ejected from an AAU basketball game over the weekend 😅 pic.twitter.com/0CCPYkT3RW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 31, 2023
Just hilarious.
Having played AAU ball (a long time ago), and having covered some big AAU events, I can attest to the officiating being spotty at best. But these are offseason, club team tournaments. The stakes are incredibly low for most of the people involved. Unless you’re a high-level recruit attempting to get noticed, the tournaments had a distinct summer camp feel to them. More fun than stressful. The officiating almost always reflects that.
A 38-year-old man throwing a tantrum during a kids’ game when he is the coach is insane, especially in these times when violence is the answer to everything. Perkins and all others who serve as role models to young sports stars should do everything to instill cordial remediation in kids rather than throwing tantrums at the least inconvenience.
The fact that ESPN was promoting this is insane.
