ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins has recently taken heat for his insinuation that White players in the league are more likely to win MVP due to the overwhelming majority of voters also being white. OutKick360’s Chad Withrow doesn’t believe Perkins is racist — which many have accused Perkins of being — but believes he’s simply not intelligent.
“He’s implying that white voters for MVP are racist and they moved the goal posts for white players when they’re really good, and they have a higher likelihood of winning MVP,” Withrow said. “Now, I disagree with that stance. Here’s the thing though: I don’t think that this makes Kendrick Perkins a racist. I think what we consistently see from Kendrick Perkins is that he’s just not very smart.”
Withrow then commented that he believes ESPN is partially responsible for Perkins being in his current predicament.
“He’s not an intelligent guy, and when you put a guy in this format every single day — who’s not particularly smart — you’re going to get outcomes like this. They’re putting him in an awful spot because he’s not very intelligent. I don’t think he’s an evil guy, I don’t think he’s a racist guy, I don’t think he’s very smart and when he goes head-to-head with JJ Redick — Duke-educated JJ Redick — or even Stephen A. Smith, he’s going to appear dumb next to these guys.
“There’s this idea oftentimes in media that ‘We need to put someone on camera that’s like our viewers’. You gotta also think about there’s a reason people are on TV sometimes. It’s because they can deliver a really good point, or they can argue something, or they’re good on television. You don’t just put anyone on TV because you think ‘Our viewers are like this, so it will be good’…Kendrick Perkins is the perfect example of this. I’ve thought this throughout his media career. He’s not smart. That’s my biggest problem.”
The comments from Withrow come after Perkins and Redick sparred over the comments during First Take Tuesday, which Redick claiming the insinuation is what is wrong with the program.
