ESPN Basketball analyst Kendrick Perkins is no stranger to controversy with his “hot takes. But one opinion caused him to receive death threats.
During an episode of his Road Trippin’ podcast, Perkins recalled that he and his wife were subject to online threats after comparing Giannis Antetokounmpo to Robin and Khris Middleton to Batman of the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship team in 2021.
“I’ve been preaching time and time again that [Khris Middleton is] the Batman of this team and Giannis is the Robin,” he said back at the time, adding, “it’s okay to be the Robin — people think that’s a bad thing. It’s not.”
According to Perkins, he showed the messages to executives at ESPN who identified the perpetrator. “They found the dude and locked him up,” Perkins said. “No, no. I wasn’t serious. You’re going to jail. Don’t play like that.”
That year, not only did Milwaukee win the NBA Championship, but Antetokounmpo was awarded the Finals MVP after a dominant display against the Phoenix Suns.
Perkins’ disturbing experiences came from the podcast episode where gambling in basketball was discussed, in particular, Michael Porter Jr., who recently spoke about the dangers of prop betting in professional sports.
“Think about it, if you could get all your homies rich by telling them, ‘Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game. I’m going to act like I’ve got an injury, and I’m going sit out. I’m going to come out after three minutes,” Porter said. “And they all get a little bag because you did it one game.”
Porter’s brother, Jontay, a former Toronto Raptors guard, received a ban from the NBA in 2020 after pleading guilty to manipulating his performance to help bettors profit on “under” wagers tied to his stats.