Kendrick Perkins, JJ Reddick Debate Over "Racist" MVP Voters

Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty

Since retiring from the NBA after a 15-year career, JJ Reddick has kept the hot takes coming as a sports pundit. In his latest fiery opinion, he took aim at Kendrick Perkins, who insinuated that NBA MVP voters are racist because only three players outside of the leading season scorers have ever won the coveted MVP trophy since the 1990s.

Those three players were Steve Nash in 2005 and 2006, Nikola Jokic in 2021 and 2022, and Dirk Nowitzki in 2007. All three of those players are white, a fact that Perkins has brought up over the last several weeks.

After name-dropping the players, Perkins continues by giving worthy comparisons, saying that the goalpost was moved for specific individuals to win.

“What do those guys have in common? I’ll let it sit there and marinate and let you think about it. Now here’s the thing when it comes down to the MVP conversations. In 2006 when Steve Nash won his second MVP and had a full roster and didn’t have the best record in the league, Kobe Bryant was averaging 31,” Perkins said. “If you look at that 2006 roster and who Kobe was playing with, they finished seventh in the west. How is he not winning? Leading the league in scoring that year.”

Reddick completely disagreed with Perkins throwing race into the mix and ignited a heated back and forth as Perkins denied he did anything wrong.

“What we’ve just witnessed is the problem with this show where we create narratives that do not exist in reality. The implication, what you are implying, that the white voters that vote on NBA are racist. That they favor white people. You just said that. Yes, you did! Yes, you did … That’s exactly what you implied, Kendrick Perkins,” Redick exclaimed.

See how Twitter’s reacting to Perkins and JJ Reddick’s debate over racial bias when voting for NBA MVPs below.

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