Lost in the anarchy of baseball’s trade deadline was Thursday night’s NBA Draft, staged in July for the first time. Compared to past years, the 2021 Draft was a relatively ho-hum affair with little in the way of drama (the Lakers trading for Russell Westbrook was probably the night’s biggest plot twist) and only one prospect who would truly qualify as a generational talent (top pick Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons).
But Thursday night’s festivities in Brooklyn did offer a platform for former Celtics big man Kendrick Perkins, who joined Jay Bilas, Mike Schmitz and host Rece Davis in anchoring ESPN’s draft coverage (Jalen Rose, Kevin Negandhi, Chiney Ogwumike and Malika Andrews were on the call for ABC). A rising star in sports media, Perkins is everywhere you look these days, frequently appearing alongside Rachel Nichols and Richard Jefferson on The Jump while also serving as a studio analyst for Celtics broadcasts on NBC Sports Boston.
The sports world is littered with difficult-to-pronounce names with tongue-twisters like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mike Krzyzewski, Ndamukong Suh, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. However, All-SEC performer Moses Moody of the University of Arkansas would not seem to match that degree of difficulty. Yet, for whatever reason, Perkins couldn’t spit it out, stammering through an excruciating 10 seconds of television after Moody was drafted Thursday night. You can almost see the smoke coming out of Perkins, short-circuiting like an iPhone dropped in water.
Whether it was the alliteration that tripped Perk up or just a momentary brain cramp, social media had a field day at his expense, relentlessly mocking the 36-year-old on Twitter.
What Perkins was trying to say before his operating system went offline was that Moody is headed to Golden State, adding to a loaded Warriors backcourt featuring sharpshooters Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. Hailing from Little Rock, the former four-star recruit finished second in SEC scoring last year (16.8 points per game), trailing only Scotty Pippen Jr. of Vanderbilt.
Props to Perk for taking it in stride, laughing off his gaffe in a playful exchange with Arkansas Basketball's Twitter account.
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