Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins were teammates for parts of five seasons with the Thunder. But in the seven-plus years since they last shared the court together, it doesn’t seem that they’re on each other’s holiday card lists.
Perkins started a war of words of sorts during his appearance on ESPN’s First Take on Monday when he reflected on his time in Oklahoma City. As he recounted the team’s core of young stars, he made a crack about Ibaka lying about his age, saying that even though his listed age for the 2010–11 season was 21, he was “probably 30 at the time.”
“Everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, Kevin Durant is only 23 years of age. Russell Westbrook is only 22, James Harden is 22, Serge Ibaka is 21—although he was probably 30 at the time because we already know how certain individuals lie about their age,” Perkins said.
Hours after Perkins made his comments, Ibaka offered a lengthy reply in a tweet thread, criticizing his former teammate’s character.
“You can talk about my game If I don’t play well, I will never have a problem with that,” Ibaka wrote. “But to talk extra for no reason is really not acceptable. It is disrespectful to me and I feel like it is disrespectful to many Africans who have to live with that unfounded accusation.”
Ibaka, now 33, is in his 14th NBA season and playing for the Bucks. He continued to deride Perkins for his conduct during his playing days when Ibaka says he broke “locker room code.”
“Although I am disappointed I am not surprised to see these actions from someone who got his job by breaking the locker room code and by spreading lies about two of his former teammates and brothers like KD and Russ,” Ibaka wrote. “When KD had a bad game you criticized him behind his back, and when Russ had a bad game then you criticized him. You were not a locker room leader, and then you continued doing the same in the media.”
Perkins later apologized for his comments, saying he was just joking about Ibaka’s age. He did, however, fire back later in the day with a strongly-worded response, hinting at some sort of wrongdoing on Ibaka’s part that he declined to elaborate on.
Given the platform Perkins has in his role as a member of the sports talkshow media, perhaps we haven’t seen the last of this latest NBA feud.
