Kendrick Perkins Hot NBA Takes Make The Grade?
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Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins has the Twittersphere abuzz with his best-of-all-time lists. Since his playing days ended, he has certainly prided himself on serving unpopular opinions.
While we can all appreciate a hot take and some controversy here and there - I’ll take the bait. On a standard A to F grading scale, what marks do his most recent opinions deserve?
Let's take a look at Perk’s Top 5 lists and give him a letter grade for each. Spoiler alert - not likely to be the Valedictorian of his class.
Point Guards
1. Magic Johnson
2. Isiah Thomas
3. John Stockton
4. Chris Paul
5. Gary Payton
Grade: B
This is a solid list but just like the OJ case, the Glove doesn’t fit. I would give the edge to Steve Nash, a 2-time MVP who was nearly a 40/50/90 shooter for his career but Bob Cousy and Jason Kidd are also better choices than Payton.
Shooting Guards
1. Michael Jordan
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Dwyane Wade
4. Ray Allen
5. Tracy McGrady
Grade: C
Can’t argue with the top 3 but Ray Allen and Tracy McGrady both have career scoring averages under 20 points per game and should be replaced with two of the most prolific scorers of all time - George Gervin and Pete Maravich (plus with all due respect to Jesus Shuttlesworth and T-Mac, they have way better nicknames).
The Iceman is a 4-time scoring champion with a career average over 25 ppg. Pistol Pete led the league in scoring once and is one of only 22 players in league history with a career scoring average over 24 ppg.
Small Forward
1. LeBron James
2. Larry Bird
3. Scottie Pippen
4. Kevin Durant
5. Paul Pierce
Grade: F
Perk should be put in after-school detention for this list. Pippen and Pierce are not even within shouting distance of the top 5 - Pierce doesn’t even crack the top 2 in Celtics history.
Perk spent some time in Boston, I wonder if anyone told him about the #17 jersey hanging from the rafters in honor of the late, great John Havlicek. It’s also possible that Perk lost his Wi-fi connection when he got to this list because a simple Google search would have turned up names like Julius Erving, Rick Barry, and Elgin Baylor.
The only tough call here is which two will replace Pippen and Pierce - I will go with Dr. J and Rick Barry.
Power Forward
1. Tim Duncan
2. Kevin Garnett
3. Karl Malone
4. Charles Barkley
5. Dirk Nowitzki
Grade: A
Tough to disagree with the top 4 and you can make a credible case for Dirk but I think Perk’s recency bias creeps in a little here. I would actually have Bob Pettit on this list. Pettit was a 2-time MVP who averaged 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds for his career.
Center
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Shaquille O’Neal
3. Hakeem Olajuwon
4. Bill Russell
5. Wilt Chamberlain
Grade: A-
He’s got the right 5 but his recency bias gets him in trouble again. Check the resumes and it’s pretty obvious that Russell and Chamberlain should be ahead of O’Neal and Olajuwon.
Hybrid
1. Steph Curry
2. Allen Iverson
3. Russell Westbrook
4. James Harden
5. Penny Hardaway
Grade: F
Perk took a lot of heat because he didn’t have Steph in his top 5 point guards so he invented a hybrid category - basically combo guards. That was creative on his part but he has failed miserably with the list.
Steph is definitely not #1 and probably is battling with Westbrook to even stay on the list (I will give him the slight edge). The two glaring omissions are Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and there is no doubt they should be ranked 1, 2 - you pick the order.
Come on now, Hardaway is “Lil Penny” compared to these two legends and let’s remember that Jerry West is the NBA’s logo for heaven’s sake.
All Time Best 5
1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5. Larry Bird
Grade: A
No quarrels for the top 4 and Bird isn’t a bad choice although personally I think there are a few players that can make a stronger case for his spot including Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Jerry West, and Oscar Robertson.
Overall Grade: C+
Perk is not going to be the Valedictorian of the “all-time lists" class and he definitely needs to brush up on his history lessons. Overall he had several strong performances but his rankings for the Small Forward and Hybrid categories simply were not acceptable.
I would be willing to grant him in-completes for those two areas, if he actually agreed to do some historical research. This and a formal written apology to KD might allow me to move his grade up to a B-.