After retiring from the league, Kendrick Perkins traded the locker room for the ESPN studio, but the transition came with a heavy price. He admitted that his role behind the microphone damaged his friendships with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook, three stars he once considered family.
Perkins, who won the 2008 NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, built strong bonds throughout his career. He shared a locker room with legends in Boston and later played alongside Durant and Westbrook in Oklahoma City. However, once he joined ESPN, his blunt on-air opinions began to create tension. “I lost Russ, KD, Bron,” he said on the Out The Mud podcast, acknowledging the fallout.
A job that forces honesty over loyalty
According to Firstsportz, Perkins explained that his conflict with LeBron escalated after a segment about Bronny James and the NBA Draft. “Bron got mad at me because we were talking about Bronny and the draft. I didn’t really want to touch it, because we shouldn’t be talking about the 55th pick… But sometimes you have that microphone in front of you, and now I have to go there,” Perkins admitted.
Kendrick Perkins speaks losing LeBron as a friend and the tough part of his role at ESPN 🗣️ https://t.co/8RuNPd6h0T pic.twitter.com/ndDXE1xHQo
— Out The Mud Podcast (@OutTheMudTL) October 24, 2025
Perkins defended himself by arguing that he simply told the truth about Bronny’s performance. He believed the young guard’s college résumé didn’t justify major hype, and his job required him to say it publicly. He added that ESPN expects clarity, strong positions, and zero sugarcoating, even when those opinions upset friends.
Perkins acknowledged that the situation hurt him, but he insisted he must protect his credibility. “Sometimes you have to say what nobody wants to hear,” he noted in a separate interview. For him, honesty is the only way to succeed in sports media.
His experience highlights a common dilemma in modern sports coverage: choosing between personal loyalty and professional integrity. Perkins has clearly chosen transparency, and although the choice cost him meaningful relationships, he claims he has no regrets. In his view, staying silent would have been a bigger betrayal—both to himself and to his audience.
