Kendrick Perkins’ Untold NBA Stories: Durant–Westbrook OKC Era & HOF Hazing

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Unplugged, presented to you by Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Today we got a special episode. We're out here in La teaming up with Meta and Threads to sit down and have a great conversation with the head of Threads, Connor Hayes and then also a friend of the program, Kendrick Perkins. Make sure you guys tap in and enjoy. What an honor to be your guys's first live Threads pod, which is super dope. Shout out Meta, thank you everyone for being here. Some of the top content creators on Threads are in here, and I'm just letting you know. Now let's work whoever you are, wherever you are, Let's let's do some stuff together. We're really excited to be on Threads and doing Threads and again host this event today.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Perk welcome man. How are you, bro? You're good. I'm talking to you.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: And I'm just saying, Matt, you hit me with the corporate like, yeah, how you doing. Welcome bro, what's up?

00:00:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm about what.

00:00:55
Speaker 1: I just wanted to set that up because I'm about to get into that side. I think you guys. You guys get to see ESPN Park. But when parkins with us, Park is a different animal. Kendrick motherfucking Perkins is what they call him on our show because him and Vernon Maxwell are tied for the most motherfuckers you could say in one episode, at like eight hundred and seventeen each in one episode.

00:01:19
Speaker 2: Park. Whatever, Man, how's everything? Man?

00:01:21
Speaker 3: I'm good man. I appreciate y'all having me, man. I appreciate It's always good when I get with you too.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, we want to want to plug you in and meet the Meta family and in the Thrance family, you know, briden your horizons a little bit. You know, it was a pleasure to meet. That's the boss man right there. He's a big fan of it. Yeah, that Celtic Green. First of all, congratulations. I think it was last year you signed your new ESPN deal. What has that been arts?

00:01:49
Speaker 2: This year? Right? Earlier this year? That last year? Last year? Okay, but how's that been going?

00:01:54
Speaker 3: I mean it's you know, I'm grateful. I'm gonna say that it's been a grind, you know what I mean?

00:02:02
Speaker 2: You all over the TV.

00:02:04
Speaker 3: You're gonna work at eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven clock, twelve, o'clock.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: So you're gonna work.

00:02:10
Speaker 3: But I'm blessed though, because I mean open up a lot of other doors and a lot of opportunities that you could take advantage of, right, And you know, to be honest, you know, as guys like ourselves, you staged Jalen Rose, who really opened the door for former players to come in and beat themselves. Right, and then you realize that you meet so many people and sit in so many rooms, right, and have so many relationships. I think you know, one of my biggest regrets as a player. And we all go through this when we playing basketball. When we hooping, we don't give a fuck about nothing else, right, it's just about hooping. We may pass people up, they may give us their business cars. We keep it moving, and we don't know where their business cards are. Now we're in this space, more people see us. Now those business cards actually mean something. They going in the wiled Endamn, the text message going out the next morning. It was a pleasure to meeting you. And then all of a sudden you're develop in those relationships. And I think that's the most that's the best thing that didn't happen for me being in this media space.

00:03:15
Speaker 1: Two part question, what is the best part about working at ESPN and what is the toughest part about working at ESPN.

00:03:22
Speaker 3: I think the best part about it is again the visibility. The visibility, right, the visibility comes more opportunity something I just harped on. That's the best part about it. Can't never take that part of for granted. The hard part about it is finding that balance, right because we're in the media space now where you know, so many players have platforms, right, And I catch myself at times when I'm on ESPN, I look across the desk and there's no disrespect nobody, But I'm the only motherfucking player up there. So at times when I may speak about a certain situation, or I may speak about something that if it was a player, they'd be like, I know exactly what you're talking about. But then since it's not a player and it's no knock to them, it's almost like I'm speaking a foreign language, right, And so I think that's the most difficult part at times is not being able to share and be able to tell stories and be able to tell certain things that certain people could relate to you about, right, and.

00:04:34
Speaker 4: In certain situations experience is the only thing that you know what I'm saying, that you can teach through you know in cerch Situay.

00:04:40
Speaker 2: So to have that experience.

00:04:42
Speaker 4: If you don't have it, then it's kind of hard there because experience is very you know what I'm saying. Very people have that experience, they have that conversation with.

00:04:48
Speaker 3: And it's and it's crazy because we like the other day, I was talking about Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City Thunder and how young they are, and I threw out the word sacrificing, and like I overemphasized it. I'm like, people talk about sacrificing in the locker room, but that shit hardest hell to do, especially for a young team, because you know, after you win the championship, man, you think you was the reason why everybody in the locker room think you they was the reason two thousand and eight, I came back in two thousand and nine. You couldn't have told me I wasn't the reason, right, You couldn't tell me I wasn't a shit And everybody feel that way. So when you watch a young team like OKC and you watch the talent that they have, bro they never have bad body language. You don't see no one hating on nobody. We know Sga is the go to guy. And you see a guy like aj Mitchell come in while Jaylen Williams hurt. He's starting probably prove to the rest of the world that he should be a starter. JDub come in, he go to the bitch. It keeps it moving. You don't find that no where. And I like, I played on the team with James and KD and r Us and Surge. The biggest downfall of that team was the sacrifice important. So it's just like when I thought, I just like a this kind of drys like, Nah, it's kind of real.

00:06:10
Speaker 4: In it's different, you know what I'm saying. Teams that win everybody by in everybody on the same thing. You said something on ESPN recently, and I agree with you, but I want you to kind of explain it. You said, Shadua Sanders is the most powerful black man in America since since Barack Obama explained that.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: I meant it to Steve Stack.

00:06:29
Speaker 3: I meant that shit with every bone in my body because what I started to realize is that when he went not the game, not the second game that he was announced the start, it was the game before that.

00:06:43
Speaker 2: The Raider game.

00:06:45
Speaker 3: And so what I realized was, once your doer, this the first thing, once your doer Sanders is playing, all beef stops at that moment. Right, it's the first time that you actually could go on social media X, Instagram, TikTok.

00:07:04
Speaker 2: Threads, what up? Threads? Threads? Right, yeah, absolutely, threads, threads. I was gonna say it. He beat me to it, you know what I mean.

00:07:13
Speaker 3: So you go on there, right, and it's nothing but positive vibes. I can't I can't name one guy besides Acho that's you on this beef, not mine.

00:07:29
Speaker 1: I know, respondsperate right now.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: But go ahead, I know you go, I know it. Yeah.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: But so it's the first time that I've seen like where it's like, man, everybody in the black community is root for this guy. And when I said it, I looked at the comments and it was like, I don't ever go in the comments because you go in the comments, you might catch yourself arguing all day with certain.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: People, right, I got I don't mind that sometimes.

00:07:59
Speaker 3: And so and so it's like you see people that's like all races and that's saying I just bought my man my seventy three year old grandmother watched the door and it's like, not Eve me, a person that didn't have that type of effect on anybody.

00:08:14
Speaker 2: And so people don't understand.

00:08:15
Speaker 3: It's like people are rooting for a guy that was a fifth round pick. It's only one guy that has like on that team that's top fifty in Jersey says, that's your doer, right and so, and he kills you in his interviews because he has.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: That balance of.

00:08:33
Speaker 3: Being arrogant flashy, which I'm cool with because he put the work in you know what I mean, if you shine, put it in their face. But then he also killed him with the I want to give all praise to God, and it hurt they soul because he won't. They want him to take the bait. They throw the rod out there. He never do.

00:08:52
Speaker 2: He never throws coach under the bus. So when I think about it, I.

00:08:55
Speaker 1: Think that coach needs to be thrown off the bus. But go ahead, I think under the bus.

00:09:00
Speaker 3: To Ben five. Yea, but nah, But that's that's what I say. I mean, like real talk. You know y'all showed up to the game. Yeah, y'all was there, Like people showing up, bro, think about it. They just played the Cleveland brown The Cleveland Browns just played Who was that Tennessee Tennessee Titans. Tennessee Titans I believe was one in eight. The Browns was fucking three and eight and everybody in their mama was watching that game. If Shadul wasn't playing, nobody was watching that shit and it was sold out in Cleveland.

00:09:32
Speaker 4: You know something too, Shad's doing what we wish our president would do, bring people together. I think that's the biggest thing he's doing. Like you talk about all races, everybody's rooting for them. You know what I'm saying, because everybody see him not getting a fair shot. You know what I'm saying. Why, we don't know. But at the end of the day, he's doing something we wish everybody were doing. That's bringing people together. I love it.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: Jack, give give everyone a walk down memory lane of how you and perk all each other.

00:09:57
Speaker 2: What's your guy's history? Yeah, so real short, we grew up.

00:10:01
Speaker 4: Our hometowns are ten minutes from each other and put off the Beaumont we're the only two to have our high school coaches, the only high school's coach coach in Texas to have two guys go out of high.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: School and both be NBA champions.

00:10:14
Speaker 4: We both came out of high school with the same basketball coach and his wife is from my hometown. So when he was in high school, my coach asked me to come in and mentor him. And he's been like a big little brother, you know what I'm saying, for the last twenty years. So I'm so proud of him, bro, and I'm just I'm just happy you having all that success.

00:10:30
Speaker 3: You give it, he give me, y'all. A short version this longer. It's stack pulling up. We was tripping. I was in the tenth grade. Stack pulled up to the gym. Came in and were like this Steve Jackson, like Steve Jackson hit like, no Hollywood stuff come in. We only had a bench press in a super cat, y'all remember the super cat.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thing we thought gave was hospital. It really just fucked up our back. Yeah. I just had that surgery that come in.

00:11:00
Speaker 3: He go through the whole workout, man, And ever since then we've been tied together like shoelaces. And I just remember doing that that championship run with the Spurs. We drove down there and man, they was in the heat. Yeah, we went to the game a few times. We actually went to one out here in LA. We went down to San Antonio, Man, and it's just been a it's been it's been a beautiful thing to watch Steve go through his journey because people don't know, like from the overseas part. I remember when you had your workout when we was in New Jersey. I was at the ABCD camp. I think Mike Brown worked you out at that time. Stack threw up, but he got through it. Next thing I know, he was signed. The journey was back on.

00:11:40
Speaker 1: It was he had to cut his night short to make that morning train with that show on.

00:11:43
Speaker 2: A lot of drugs.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of monster was perking high school?

00:11:48
Speaker 2: Stack?

00:11:48
Speaker 4: Oh well, just imagine everybody on the court of six five sixty six and half of them can't dribble a shoot, But you got a seven foot guy, two hundred and seventy pounds that could dribble, shoot, do everything. I think that that's that's why he was able to go out of high school because the things he was doing. See, people didn't see his game before he got to the NBA. He got to the NBA and did what made him a professional. What made him graacrifice? You know what I'm saying exactly, He did the things to make his teams better. But if you would have seen him in high school, he was playing point guard as the best, the biggest person on the court, bringing it up and down in the summertime. I tell you, when he got into the league, he had Kat James, all the guys on this team come down to play pick up and my brother was still alive there and he dunked on Kat that.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: To that day.

00:12:30
Speaker 4: But yeah, broa, yeah, no, he blocked Kd's dune. He blocked K's dumb Yeah. But but around that time, I was just excited to see him because it wasn't nobody that side doing what he was doing. And then pick up you will see what he really could do, you know what I'm saying. So I was just excited to see that. But he had everything in this game. And when you can put when you can put a lot of things and things you want to do on the quarter side for the betterment of your team, that says a lot about you. And it's not easy for me to understand that because the same way as a human being.

00:13:02
Speaker 1: This is a random thought forgive me, but obviously this is a basketball community in basketball threads. If you guys ever want to see some real, real basketball outside of what you see on TV, go to pick up watch pickup basketball, go to UCLA or go to some of these gyms in the summertime and see guys.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: You're like, oh shit, Like probably.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: What Jack is explaining now, how Perk was because when you get to the league, there's just a pecan order and certain guys that can do certain shit, and if you don't conform to what they make you or trying to turn you into, you're gonna be out the league. But pickupball is a whole nother monster because there's no coaches, there's no rules, and you really get to show your game. So for you real basketball fans in here in the summertime, check out pick up basketball in LA.

00:13:44
Speaker 2: Nothing like it, Perk.

00:13:46
Speaker 1: Obviously you were able to go straight to the league out of high school.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: They've since acts that rule.

00:13:51
Speaker 1: What is your thought on possibly bringing it back or do you still think the kids need one year out of college or excuse me, one year remove from high school before they go in the draft.

00:14:00
Speaker 2: What is the one year doing? Nothing?

00:14:03
Speaker 3: Like seriously, what I mean, what is the one year doing? Like real talk, what is the one year doing? I would rather guy be able to get drafted out of high school and go to the NBA and sit on the bench for a year and learn the ins and outs because those guys still have to adjust once they get to the NBA. We saw what happened with Cooper Flag Now he was asked to have a bigger role because he stepped into a situation as a number one pick. The last time we've seen that was what Tim Duncan. Where you actually because you know Dallas was considered a contender, they just didn't They wasn't healthy. But it's still taking time for him, right, It's still taking time for a lot of these guys to learn the game at the NBA level. So I'm with it, man, I just don't I don't understand it. I don't understand what is the one year doing? Like what what You're going to college for one year to say that they're developing at what? And no one can answer that question. No one can answer the question why they made the rule right? No one still to this day, it gave us any explanation on why they decided to take it take.

00:15:15
Speaker 2: It away in Cuba.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: But it's also the same body that allows twenty seven and twenty eight year olds to play with seventeen and eighteen year olds.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: And that's what I'm saying, Let's go to war.

00:15:25
Speaker 4: You can go fight for the country at eighteen, but you can't take care of your family.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: That's right, That's what I'm saying.

00:15:30
Speaker 3: So you you got, you got everything you got overseas they starting at thirteen fourteen. I mean, I just I just don't understand it. I don't understand it, and I think they need to go back to it. We see what's the kid aj De bounds to what he's doing right now. I think the kid Darrin Peterson, he'll be ready to hoop right now.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: Culture thing. Yeah, it's a culture thing.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: One of the boozer boys, Kayleb Williams.

00:15:58
Speaker 2: So they can make a jump right now. Yes, I wouldn't you be in getting the head starter of it.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: You're you were still drafted in a time where they were rookie duties.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: Jack got a free pass.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: If you guys haven't heard the story of Kenya, Martin was his guy, so Jack didn't have to do ship for the bnass but you were drafted an O three to a team with Paul Pierce, my dog, Ricky Davis, Vin Baker club shiz Nip. What was your rookie year duties like? And tell us a little bit about club shiz nick.

00:16:25
Speaker 3: Y'all want the honest truth, don't fields part of it? I mean, man, what do I start?

00:16:34
Speaker 2: I know? I know.

00:16:35
Speaker 3: The first thing that I had that I realized is that I before we loved to go on the trip, that I needed to keep a pack of Newports.

00:16:45
Speaker 2: Who's smoking cigare? I can't snitch man? You know what I'm saying. I can't sitch man. But I.

00:16:53
Speaker 3: Had to keep a pack of Newports and some some type of hind the ken of some type of beer because people see behind the scenes now. But y'all remember the game was over in the back in the locker room. While you wiser it was beer. You was drinking a bottle of beer. That's just what it was. So the craziest thing though, and it was my second year, is when we got GP Gary Payton, and man, it was so crazy because I was like, hell, yoh man, I'm finally done with these fucking rookie duties. I ain't got to do this shit no more. And he was like, oh, no, you're steal the rook. You're rook until you play your first NBA game. And I was like, I didn't know that, and he was like, you're mine. So he had two rooms. He had a few rules. The first rule was, you know, GP he always wore those damn dicky Dicky suits.

00:17:46
Speaker 2: He's talking about Gary Payton.

00:17:48
Speaker 3: He always he wore those dicky suits. He had the gray, he had the blue, he had the black, he had the white. He had all that shit, and well, I had to iron it. I had to iron it. So he would as we walking on the plane, he would hand me his bag and was like, yeah, you know, handle your business. He had literally called down to the front desk where I couldn't send it to the cleaner. So he made me actually iron it, so I had to put creases in there. But the craziest, the craziest thing he done. So we land in Milwaukee. We land in Milwaukee. I think I told you this story. I don't know. I probably didn't. We land in Milwaukee. It's like two o'clock in the morning. We just got through playing. I believe maybe it was in Chicago. Or one of them cities. And GP was like, uh, he used to call me ugly. I don't know why I ugly. He called you everybody ugly, but he called me that ugly. I'm like, man, what's up?

00:18:51
Speaker 2: Man? Man, I need a bottle of Patron.

00:18:53
Speaker 3: Now I'm nineteen, so I'm like, man, what the fuck I'm gonna get a bottle of patron at at two o'clock in the morn morning, right, But he did.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: It's serious.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I go to the club, found the club in Milwaukee a boy that was open, and they're giving me problems because it's twenty one to get in, right, So I'm nineteen, so now I gotta pay. I gotta pay the bounce of like five hundred dollars to.

00:19:17
Speaker 2: Let me in. Then I got to ask him.

00:19:20
Speaker 3: Now I'm on my rookie deal, so everything't matter to me at this point. I'm counting all my per diem and everything. So I get I'm like, hey, man, hey bro, we have on that bro Like, they don't really know who I am because I'm not getting any playing time at this point, so I'm not you know, they don't know who the fuck I am? Just yeah, just big and black and sixteen walking in there, and so I'm like, I'm like, hey, bro, what the on that man? I like, so get the owner. I'm like, hey, bro, listen, I'm Kendrick Perkins. I play for the Celtics. I'm here, Gary Payton son me. I gotta get a bottle of patronk so you know the tax coming with that, right, So he like, look, I give you a bottle patrol Man and everything for eight hundred.

00:20:02
Speaker 2: So I'm like eight hundreds.

00:20:05
Speaker 3: I'm like damn. I'm like, but I gotta get it, and he let me bring it out. So I get the bottle of Patron. I get to get back to the hotel. So at this time, it ain't no lifts. It's not ubers, I mean ubers. I'm in a taxi, so I gotta wait on the taxi. First of all, I'm getting in a taxi outside the club. The club popping, I'm getting in the taxi. That's the first embarrassing moment. Okay, with the bottom of Patron. So I get back to the hotel. I go knock on this door. He opens the door and tell me appreciate you ugly and close it. No reimbursement, no tipping, no, none of that shit. Bro was so hot and he still having gave me my money or tip for that shit. If I bring it up to him to this day, you just laugh about it to be like, may you know you my guy?

00:20:55
Speaker 2: Good? Damn?

00:20:57
Speaker 1: So yeah, GP, I'm looking around the NBA. Okay, see your former ball club that did the team you came in with. What are your thoughts on just this team? I think we touched on it obviously, but can you compare and contrast kind of your young team to this younger team.

00:21:13
Speaker 2: I can't. Can't nothing nothing, nothing similar. I can't.

00:21:18
Speaker 3: I can't nothing is the same. I can't that that team play for each other. I can't compare them.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: To you guys. Issues.

00:21:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, that team right there plays for each other. They play for one another. It means something to them that each one of those guys to be successful. They want each each other to be successful. I'm looking at this team, man, and I you know, Devin Booker had like something to say like two weeks ago about this squad, right He was like, we figured out the secret sauce. This is before a last night game, and I'm.

00:21:52
Speaker 2: Like, last night game and they lost by forty.

00:21:54
Speaker 3: Fifty, and I was I was saying to myself, what the fuck is the secret sauce? So he was like all they do is this, this and this, And I'm like, they got on the floor last night and gave him a spanking.

00:22:05
Speaker 2: Man. I first of all, I.

00:22:07
Speaker 3: Believe that they're gonna beat the Warriors record that's seventy three and nine.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: They're gonna beat that.

00:22:12
Speaker 3: I just never seen a team in my lifetime that is stacked with that many two way players ye both sides of the ball, and especially at the perimeter. Now, we didn't seen some elite teams win something played on some one championship.

00:22:28
Speaker 2: I just don't. I haven't seen especially at the perimeter.

00:22:31
Speaker 3: When you look at it, it's like Louke Dorts, Alex Caruso, Caseon Wallace, Jalen Williams, the kid aj Mitchell. He's an elite defender both ways. Hell is GA even defend at the high level. And I'm like, it's no drop off, right, And so I'm looking at SGA.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: ISGA giving me Michael Jordan type viobs?

00:22:58
Speaker 5: Man?

00:22:59
Speaker 3: He giving me Jordan type vibes. And when I say that is because Jordan not only would he give your ass thirty? But it was on fifty percent shooting SGA is leading the league and made two point jump shots. Ninety one percent of his shots is contested.

00:23:21
Speaker 2: God damn. He is shooting.

00:23:23
Speaker 3: Fifty six percent from the field though fifty six percent. It's big man who don't finish the season shooting fifty percent from the field and all they do is dunking layups. He is shooting fifty six percent forty five percent from three. Now I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say he's giving me Michael Jordan vibs just because it's twenty five. No, this has been the last three and a half seasons that he's averaged thirty and shot over fifty two percent from the field on step back in two point jump shots. And I'm like, man, and he's not slowing down. And I'm sitting up here saying, name me another guy that was doing it at this level at six six, not because of that letter says, I ain't comparing him to that, But I'm talking about when it comes down to getting a bucket shit.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: Presty a beautiful mind.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: What he's been able to do with this organization, the way he's been able to accumulate assets and picks and all kinds of different things. You got any cool behind the doors closed door store you could tell us about Sam?

00:24:33
Speaker 2: I got a few. So but yeah, sam my guy Sam Nick looks Sam. It took.

00:24:40
Speaker 3: The best thing that happened for st was samt for Sam was that he lost Kadi and James. But when he lost James, it made Sam change right and it made him adapt. That was the best thing that happened to Sam Preston, because remember when I got told KC it was different. It was like Sam Preston was trying to was running there the spurs way right. So like shit, I may say on Twitter at the time or social media, I was getting called in the principal office stuff like that. But he has changed with time and I think that helped him and now he got what he got. But behind the scene story, So I got in trouble. I had got in trouble outside of nightclub during my ten year class reunion in Houston. I got Yeah, I got in a fight. So, you know, a ten year class reunion, you're feeling yourself. You know, you're doing all this ship so that we're getting to fight. I don't know anything. I go to training camp.

00:25:40
Speaker 2: We go to Turkey that night. Huh, you wasn't there that night. Now me and Steve got we got.

00:25:47
Speaker 3: To come up together. So I go to Turkey. I go to Turkey. We go to Turkey for training camp. And when I get up, when we landed back in the States, the security guy named flat and she come up to me like, hey, look for you got off the plane. You got a warrant out for your arrest. And I'm like what So I didn't know the people that went press charges or whatever. Anyway, go through the whole thing, go to court case, get this miss or whatever, going into so I led. I was like top three in the league and technical files. At this point, Sam think I got a real problem. Like he really think I got a real problem.

00:26:25
Speaker 2: And so.

00:26:27
Speaker 3: He comes to me after the season. He said, you know I care about you. Right when I said yo, he said, well, I need you to do something for me. And I was like, well, what's up. He was like, I know it's May, but in middle of June, starting in the middle of June, all the way up to the first week of September, I need you from eight to five every Monday, do Friday to be in Kansas City at this Angle Managements place.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: Right damn.

00:27:01
Speaker 3: And I was like, man, I ain't got to do that shit, you know in my mind, right, that's what I'm saying. I ain't doing that man like. And he was like, but I'm serious. And the serious part was was like, I ain't about to be tolerting your bullshit type serious, right. So I went and it was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life because it got me to a mode of one how to control myself. Not like I had angle issues, but I got a chance to meet a lot of great people.

00:27:33
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:27:34
Speaker 3: And I got a chance to meet a lot of great people. And when I say great people, I got a chance to meet doctors, anesthegiologists that were in there that were reported because you know, in the medical field, if you abuse your power, you get too many write ups. They see you there. And it was a nice facility, but it helped me out in so many ways. And I remember when I came back, I walked in the saund office and he just started crying and I was like, press you good. He was like, man, that was a test because if you wouldn't have done it. I was gonna trade your ass and I didn't really want to, and you did it. That showed me that you committed, that you really care about how I feel about you.

00:28:16
Speaker 2: And right there was like a real moment. That's beautiful. Sam. Sam learned from the best.

00:28:20
Speaker 4: He was a video guy when I was in San Antonio and I said I congratulated him on Instagram when they won the championship and he's sading me alone mentions about how a lot of people didn't respect him when he was coming up with the Spurs. But I always gave me respect and I always talked to him. So I'm happy that he having a success. He hasn't got me too. Look, people don't know people see that. You know the clean cut Sam on TV, Sam, I'm a dog now.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: He wanted to win.

00:28:44
Speaker 3: He got a competitive nature about him behind the scenes.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: So yeah, we got anything over there for hot takes from the threads thrown. Who got a hot take for us? Better not be no bullshit.

00:28:58
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Latoy from Girl Talk Sports community for women who love sports. Find me on threads at.

00:29:05
Speaker 7: Girls Shout Out the Ladies Shout Out.

00:29:08
Speaker 6: Find me on threads at girl Underscore talks underscore sports.

00:29:12
Speaker 7: So I'm a whole.

00:29:13
Speaker 6: Immigrant, and my hot take is Team World is going to dominate the NBA All Star.

00:29:20
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you take that first part. I actually agree with me too. You're right, all right?

00:29:27
Speaker 3: How'm like, should I actually agree with I'm like, I get to I was thinking about this the other day.

00:29:32
Speaker 2: I'm like, they starting vibe is Yoki, Jannis Luca Sga with me. I actually agree, And there you go. You won your hot take. Give it up for a real quick Yeah.

00:29:54
Speaker 8: What's up, guys, I'm Victoria a Ka baby b. My hot take is, do you I think that the league is just no longer taking pride in defense because I feel like every night someone scoring fifty, sixty, seventy and we're celebrating it.

00:30:09
Speaker 7: But I feel like we're forgetting a.

00:30:10
Speaker 8: Whole other half of the team, Like you don't see a two thousand and four Pistons vibe out here anymore, or defense in general.

00:30:18
Speaker 2: Well, I answered that I know what basketball I agree.

00:30:21
Speaker 4: I agree defense is definitely taking a step back in basketball, more guys are worried about what the game can do for him instead of actually loving the game. You see so many guys scoring thirty points and all this stuff. Yeah, these guys are very talented. But the competitive nature of stopping your guy, studying SKYT reports and knowing what your guy like to do, Like I know I wouldn't I probably wouldn't stop SHYT, but I know he wouldn't drive left and should have step back the same shot all game on me. I would force him to do something different, and he might make them but you're gonna do something different. They don't think like that, no more so you exactly right. Defense has definitely been lost in the game today.

00:30:56
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna say this, Adam Silvera just puts something out about like hearing the fans complaints about defense.

00:31:05
Speaker 2: It's a real thing. It's a real thing. And you know why.

00:31:08
Speaker 3: One part that people are not realizing sports betting is here and every motherfucker in the world bet on sports. Even my great auntie called me and I didn't even know her as what like to put in a property real talk. And so what I'm saying is when you betting on sports that actually make you watch the game even closer, Like right, if your money is tied in this and you waiting on one game and you locked.

00:31:37
Speaker 2: In and it could be. It could it's your part a.

00:31:40
Speaker 3: It could be the Pacers and Hawks, no disrespect, I'm just talking about this year. It could be that they're gonna watch it. So I'm with that, and I'm also with and y'all tell me how y'all feel. Man, I'm tired of all this two three zone one two two man. They should take that out of them. It should be straight.

00:31:59
Speaker 2: Man, the man man.

00:32:00
Speaker 3: And this is not what I'm not with that in the NBA. I think that is handicap and the gimmick.

00:32:04
Speaker 1: It's a gimmick unless people off the hook. But also think too. The one thing I do like because I'm obviously I played defense for a living.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: That was my thing.

00:32:11
Speaker 1: But I feel like in the playoffs they allow them to play a little bit more defense. So to me, that's kind of my only like. Okay, but yeah, I have completely agree. During the season is we used to call it brother in law defense. You score, I score, you let me score, I let you score. We just didn't come up in that ear so we don't understand it. But also at the same time to the credited game, the game has grown because of all the scoring and all the highlights you see, So it's kind of a double edged sword. But I mean, I think to perks point, the commissioner understands that it understands what the fans want to see the peers want to see.

00:32:41
Speaker 2: So hopefully we'll get some.

00:32:42
Speaker 1: Rule changes or allow more stuff to get us back to more of a defensive battle.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: Thank you for your question. My name is Swoop.

00:32:49
Speaker 9: Blame Swoop to the exact. So how you guys doing so, proud of you all, seriously and congratulations on everything. My high take is, so I'm from Cleveland.

00:33:01
Speaker 2: Ohio, born and raised.

00:33:05
Speaker 9: And honestly, you know, Shador coming to this city literally feels like when Bron arrived. There's a diff I mean, if you ever been to Cleveland, you know it's cold, it's gray, but the energy that's there now feels like when Bron entered the city. The economy feels different. People are building things and you know, want to bring companies there. My hot take is that the Cleveland Browns would be Super Bowl champions within five years.

00:33:38
Speaker 2: Not with that coaching staff.

00:33:41
Speaker 3: I disagree with your hot take, but I want that hope. Make sure y'all record it every single thing he just said, because for all the people that gave me shit about what I said about him being the most powerful black man, powerful athlete in sports. Right now, it's certain athletes that changed the economy. Right we saw Yannis in Milwaukee. He changed the economy.

00:34:07
Speaker 2: He's going to New York, by the way, any.

00:34:09
Speaker 3: I mean, if he stopped being a coward. You know, I'm just saying, and I respect you, honest, but man like bro, just say you want out, Bro, you want out, and it's okay. Guess what, It's okay, and no one should be mad. He's gave everything and more to that city. But just saying that's not with this roller coaster. But I disagree with the hot tape. I agree with you.

00:34:33
Speaker 2: I agree.

00:34:34
Speaker 4: I think if they get rid of the coach staff, a lot has to happen.

00:34:37
Speaker 2: Though a lot has to happen for them to win it in five years.

00:34:40
Speaker 4: They got to get rid of the coach and actually give Shadua the keys. Whay, he's not looking over his shoulder. If a couple of things like that happened, get another receiver in there, I think they can because that defense is good enough.

00:34:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's management's job to put putting the pieces around him, they already got a good defense. And again to Stax's point, he's not having the second guess himself and look a over his shoulder. I think he's it's only been three games and we're not saying he's a savior, but he's the best thing they have for sure. And to Perks point, this guy moves the needles, so we obviously wish him the best.

00:35:10
Speaker 3: So like this whole, this whole media thing, right, there's so many areas going in, there, so many beefs inside of this media. I gotta get youall input on this and how y'all feel about certain situations because we hain't got a chance to chop it up in a minute Like I see the k Morton dramond I'm completely on Keny on Morte side right, like real talk, because I feel where he's coming from. You know, it's certain language that shouldn't be used when you talk about guys that made it to the NBA, right, I feel like anytime you made it, you shouldn't be it shouldn't be called you shouldn't be called the underachiever or a bus or whatever that is.

00:35:52
Speaker 2: If you made it, you made it right. But I want to know, Like, it's so.

00:35:56
Speaker 3: Many beefs going on this side of the media, media people beefing with media people. Man, how y'all feel about this?

00:36:04
Speaker 4: Well, I'll start off for me, a lot of a lot of the stuff as well. With basketball players, that's healthy because what basketball player, I don't think he was better than others. Now, I come with receipts with mine, you know what I'm saying, in facts, so with feelings, you know what I'm saying. So a lot of people say a lot of things, but they don't have no facts. But at the end of the day, it's fun because that's just like you in the gym and the guy telling you I can beat you. I can know you can't, you know what I'm saying, So that that that's all fun. When it gets to the point where you're disrespecting people's families, when you're making it personally and not by the by basketball and you're trying to take it elsewhere, that's when it become a problem. But I think for the most part, we have enough respect in our show and we show so much love that we don't ever have to get to that point, you know what I'm saying, Because even when Nick was saying the things about me. The first thing I said, what it ain't no beef because it's certain people that can't compete with me, you know what I'm saying. And at the end of the day's levels to this. So but the competition to talk, the back and forth is all good. Long as the states, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, long as the state basketball.

00:36:59
Speaker 1: What you say, Yeah, Perk, I've turned over a new leaf. So I don't have no beefs. I love everybody. Oh yeah, and look, my am, this is my hos beef with either you know.

00:37:11
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.

00:37:12
Speaker 3: This is my thing with everything from the network, the platforms that I'm on, even with y'all. Like, the thing is is that we gotta start doing a better job of holding people account with.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: Ship that bullshit they say.

00:37:28
Speaker 3: It's it's bullshit, they say, But let's not turn basketball in sports into TMZ and CNN. Like I don't want to keep hearing the fucking reportings on Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones and Terror ROSEI okay, it came out cool. Bet something else happened a month later than addressing But I don't want to care. I don't give a fuck about no write ups. I don't want to hear no deep dives. Bill Simmons says something the other day that I came across with was like Bill Simmons said, like, you know the Hornets knew about the investigation, that's why they traded. How you know like that speculation like that ain't covering the game of basketball. Man, that's like if you go go do that, mego work for you know what I'm saying, crime scenes is a homicide or some shit.

00:38:16
Speaker 2: It's getting ridiculous. Keep it spoiled though.

00:38:18
Speaker 1: For man, I just think to another and I said it the other day, anonymous sources, I'm not with anonymous sources.

00:38:25
Speaker 2: Me.

00:38:25
Speaker 1: You're gonna talk some shit, put your motherfucking name on it, anonymous sources of the across the board, sports life, whatever it is, and not like if you have something to say, say it, you know, don't hide behind source anonymous sources.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: That bothers me. I don't pat us on the back of them.

00:38:41
Speaker 4: But I'm glad we never dove into the meaning people to make ourselves look better. That's one thing I show take pride or we give flowers, and too many people look forward today. If you demean somebody it makes you look better, That's definitely not the way success and I hope we've been an example of that again, Perk.

00:38:55
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time today. Man, thank you very much giving up for Perk. Let's meet the man this behind Threads. Let's welcome to the stage right now, Connor Hayes.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: Thanks for being here.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: So, Connor, you're the head of Threads and now it's been there for been doing that for about four months. How's that experience been, and take us back a little bit of how the concept of Threads came about.

00:39:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was part of the team that built Threads originally and then kind of took a little detour and came back a.

00:39:28
Speaker 7: Few months ago.

00:39:29
Speaker 5: But there's always just been this big demand, like ever since the internet, you know, came out for people to take their interests online and talk about them with other people and find other people that are as big of fanatics about whatever topic it is that they might be.

00:39:43
Speaker 7: And so obviously there's been apps.

00:39:45
Speaker 5: Reddit and Twitter and things like that in the past that had done really well here, but we really saw this opening as meta to compete in that space, and so that was the early stages of Threads is how can we do this, do it in a little bit of a different way, make it feel like it came from Meta, came from Instagram. And it's been an awesome couple of years ever since since we launched it. The last four months have been great, though. The big thing for us right now is focusing on these interest based communities, basketball being a huge one of them, so that took off organically.

00:40:13
Speaker 7: In the very beginning.

00:40:15
Speaker 5: Basketball and NBA discussion was always one of the first things that people took to. I remember the weekend before we launched, we let in a bunch of partners to the app, and I had, like Mark Cuban, the Mavericks had just signed Seth Curry, and Seth Curry signed up and posted something and Mark Cuban.

00:40:31
Speaker 7: Replied to him and I was like, all right, we got one.

00:40:32
Speaker 5: This is going to be good, you know when you see people interacting like that. And for the last few months we've been just trying to do more and more. So we've added these podcast features, the NBA Threads community and there's a lot more to come.

00:40:42
Speaker 2: Love that.

00:40:42
Speaker 1: Congratulations when you look around this room and see all the threads creators in here, you're sitting up on the stage talking about it, like, what's the first thing that comes to mind for you?

00:40:51
Speaker 7: First thing comes to mind is like, how did this happen?

00:40:54
Speaker 5: Because when you guys probably have can relate to this, having built you know, your whole company. But when you start out, it's like a few people with an idea just kind of sitting around in a room with laptops and you're like, what could we do? And you throw out some big idea of you know, we could be the biggest in the space someday. But when it starts happening, and it starts happening faster than you expected to, it's kind of surreal.

00:41:16
Speaker 7: So appreciate you guys and everybody else we're coming out.

00:41:19
Speaker 2: Thank you for having us.

00:41:20
Speaker 1: The NBA normally dominates social media. The NFL dominates cable. Obviously, the trend is cables kind of dying out. Where do you think threads fits into how fans interact with the game.

00:41:34
Speaker 5: We really wanted to be this like second screen, you know, whenever you're watching games live, where you can see what's happening in real time. On the conversation about it, there's been a few moments like that for me this year where things really clicked. When we've launched the NBA Threads community. I don't know if you guys remember, it was like the first week of the season when Wemby it was like his first or second game, and everyone was like, oh my god, what is happening right now? And I had threads up and was just refreshing, refreshing, freshing, and people are throwing clips in there and commentary and you see players and ex players starting to comment on it, and his like MVP conversation kind of starts taking off.

00:42:08
Speaker 7: Of course, he's missed some time, but so those are the moments where we feel like it's working.

00:42:13
Speaker 5: And we want it to be much more like that the second screen when you're watching.

00:42:16
Speaker 2: Some of that.

00:42:16
Speaker 4: You're a big time Celtics fan, Yes, sir, the Celtics are surprising people this year.

00:42:22
Speaker 2: You need my microphone.

00:42:24
Speaker 4: The Celtics are surprising people this year. Sound like Barry White doing it. Do you think Tatum's coming back?

00:42:32
Speaker 5: I'm not that surprised, but because I'll tell you what, because I think Joe Mizula is just an absolute maniac. The Yeah, the third team in the East, right now I keep going around telling people that were the third team in the East, and we were ninth like five days ago, so I have to calm.

00:42:46
Speaker 2: Down a little bit.

00:42:47
Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, they have a bunch of really good players, they have a good system. I don't know if they're a championship team without Jason Tatum, but we'll see.

00:42:54
Speaker 1: Jayden Brown's been playing really well. Obviously what he thought about his play, because there's kind of always been normally social media back and forth like is he a one A or is he a one B? I think he's obviously stepped in the role and has great numbers this year. What do you think about his play this year?

00:43:08
Speaker 7: It's been awesome.

00:43:09
Speaker 5: I Mean the thing about those guys, which I really do believe and actually curious if you have any insider information because I'm just making this up, is that they don't seem like they've ever cared about that one A one B conversation. It's just always been a partnership of like, let's go win some basketball games. So I'm you know, I think in any other situation you would you there would be a conversation of like is this threatening to Jason Tatum? But nobody's saying that because it's clear that they love playing together.

00:43:35
Speaker 7: But yeah, Jalen's been great. I think the big thing has just been on the defensive side of the ball too.

00:43:40
Speaker 5: This dude, Jordan Walsh has been like insane and it's setting up a bunch of transition that works for him. But the craziest thing that I was checking out recently is they are like one of the slowest teams in the league on pace, but one of the top for three pointers made, which just shows that they're committed to the three and they're working it into half court and so it seems.

00:43:57
Speaker 7: Like that's working.

00:43:58
Speaker 2: Now.

00:43:59
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts, Obviously being a Celtics fan, Jason Tatum is a head of schedule. If you were the GM or the person who made decisions over there, maybe the president, would you bring him back next year or do you think that he needs to relax and wait and wait till next season.

00:44:16
Speaker 5: I mean, like I want to say, get him back tomorrow.

00:44:21
Speaker 7: I don't know.

00:44:22
Speaker 5: I feel like they'll figure that out. But there was a video of him today doing one on one drills. I mean, that's different than doing a seven game playoff series, of course, but I don't know. I feel like he will come back this year. I think it's kind of pointing in that direction. My sense is that if they were five and fifteen right now, he probably wouldn't, but the fact that they're overperforming seems like he probably will.

00:44:42
Speaker 4: It is always they always make that decision depending on how the team is coming up after All Star Break.

00:44:47
Speaker 2: They're gonna make the same way with Kyrie as well.

00:44:50
Speaker 4: Good thing about your team, Your star player got his haircut situation together.

00:44:55
Speaker 2: That was kind of rough for men.

00:44:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I definitely saw some He is getting crazy.

00:45:03
Speaker 4: Shout out Jaylen Brown, who wins this best of seven eighty six Celtics Bird McHale Parish as Dennis Johnson are the two thousand and eight Celtics KG Paul Rondo, Ray and perk.

00:45:16
Speaker 2: Oh Wait easy.

00:45:18
Speaker 7: Who's guarding Kevin Garnett on that team?

00:45:20
Speaker 2: Nobody? No, I agree. I don't think them were fast enough. Parish, I guess.

00:45:28
Speaker 7: I guess the Chief might might give him some trouble.

00:45:31
Speaker 2: I think the advantage would be at point guard Rondo for me.

00:45:35
Speaker 5: Yes, Ken Kendrick Perkins one time put on threads. Uh you know, it was like, who who's your all time starting five or something like that, and my response was.

00:45:43
Speaker 1: Rondo, Rondo, He's a monster.

00:45:48
Speaker 2: What's your favorite memory of the Celtics.

00:45:49
Speaker 7: Fan summer twenty twenty four.

00:45:51
Speaker 5: I got to go to Game five when they won the championship against Dallas, which was awesome.

00:45:56
Speaker 7: I've never been in a sports moment.

00:46:00
Speaker 5: The Peyton Pritchard end of the first half, like three quarter court shot.

00:46:04
Speaker 7: I thought I was gonna go deaf.

00:46:06
Speaker 5: My wife was there with me and we were like, just I have a photo of her cheering, and the security guard is like, like, you're not supposed to do that when you're working security at the game.

00:46:15
Speaker 7: But the whole arena went crazy. It was great.

00:46:17
Speaker 2: I love that.

00:46:18
Speaker 1: I heard you have announcement, well, some new features in the basketball community.

00:46:22
Speaker 2: You want to Yeah, so this is so.

00:46:24
Speaker 5: We have the NBA Threads community. You can join and tag your posts into it. It's been going really well so far. Upcoming in the next week or so, we're going to be rolling out a couple of things to recognize people that are in those communities. One of them is actually giving people like badges and titles when they're good at starting conversations, when they're like a top contributor to the community things like that, so they can show that off. And the other, which I think is really important, is being able to add your favorite team as flair, because nothing's worth worse on the Internet than when you're like arguing with someone and they're like, Scottie Barnes is a top five player and they don't have the Raptors flair.

00:46:57
Speaker 7: You're like, what is their bias?

00:46:58
Speaker 2: You know?

00:46:59
Speaker 5: So now we'll have the Raptors flare next to it and you can understand who you're dealing with.

00:47:04
Speaker 1: What's your biggest advice for creators on how best to utilize threads?

00:47:09
Speaker 5: The number one thing I always say when people are getting started is to just focus on replying and showing people that you're there. A lot of folks, you guys probably have experienced this a bit too, get on the platform and they're used to creating media content, their video content creators or their podcast content creators, and they have a keyboard in front of them and they're like, I don't know what to say, But if you scroll your feed for like, you know, five, ten, fifteen minutes, you're gonna see some things that you have an opinion on and starting to weigh on those and reply to people. We tend to show that off to folks that are in the app and so then they might not even follow you, but they're saying, you know, Kendrick Perkins asked for your top five players. If you responded with your take right now, it starts going out to everybody and you can build an audience that way.

00:47:49
Speaker 2: Main down a question, mj Kobe, Brawn, Rank.

00:47:54
Speaker 7: Them right now?

00:47:56
Speaker 2: Ran? Yeah? Done, Ron, right now? Rank them?

00:48:00
Speaker 6: No?

00:48:01
Speaker 7: I mean I think Michael Jordan is the best player.

00:48:03
Speaker 2: Ever, I don't.

00:48:05
Speaker 7: I don't even know why that's a debate.

00:48:08
Speaker 4: I'm proud of you, was saying, yeah.

00:48:12
Speaker 1: And now the next two positions are the horror positions? Who do you have behind him?

00:48:17
Speaker 7: Number two? Ever? Probably Bill Russell?

00:48:19
Speaker 2: Oh? You put Bill Russell in there? Is that some Celtics bias?

00:48:22
Speaker 1: Maybe, Oh, Lebron? Usually they have two Hunhs or Kobe. I mean, it just kind of just depends.

00:48:29
Speaker 7: I think your top five is.

00:48:31
Speaker 5: I'll say it in no particular order, Jordan, Russell, Lebron, Kobe. Some people have Will I wouldn't put him in there, and then I'd probably have Magic or Bird.

00:48:43
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, it's pretty solid. Rounded out five.

00:48:47
Speaker 7: I have a surprise for you.

00:48:49
Speaker 5: This is my original two thousand and eight championship T shirt and on it they did him very dirty on there, and I want, I want everyone.

00:48:59
Speaker 7: Can you find him? It's hard to even know which one.

00:49:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

00:49:06
Speaker 1: You got a strong ass face and that's slim perk right there. Oh is that what it is?

00:49:18
Speaker 2: You gotta come see this park?

00:49:19
Speaker 7: Come up, man, I don't know if I don't know if the artists signed this, but I.

00:49:23
Speaker 1: Mean, what are the chances that you're a huge Celtics fan? And then we just happened to grab a championship center from the eight team.

00:49:30
Speaker 7: The greatest franchise in sports.

00:49:31
Speaker 2: So there you go.

00:49:32
Speaker 7: Thanks for coming.

00:49:32
Speaker 1: And again we really want to thank the whole Meta team for making this, putting this together, our team for collabing with them.

00:49:38
Speaker 2: Threads. We appreciate you guys.

00:49:39
Speaker 1: We look forward to continue to do a great business with you guys, all the Hot Take people.

00:49:43
Speaker 2: We appreciate you guys.

00:49:44
Speaker 1: And like I said, I mean creators, let's get together, man, let's work up.

00:49:48
Speaker 2: Let's make it