NBA player-turned-media personality Kendrick Perkins revealed that he\u2019s\u00a0no longer on speaking terms\u00a0with his former teammate, Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n
The pair, who competed for an NBA championship with the Thunder, fell out after Perkins delivered a warning to Westbrook during a television broadcast a few years ago \u2014 cautionary advice that proved extremely telling ahead of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook passes around Brooklyn Nets guard Dennis Schroder and forward Jalen Wilson on Oct. 29, 2024. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Back when Westbrook was on the Lakers, the ESPN analyst urged the former MVP to \u201ctemper it down\u201d or he might run himself out of the league, drawing from conversations he\u2019d had with various NBA general managers.<\/p>\n
And with less than a month to go before opening night, Westbrook finds himself without a team to play for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis very situation, this moment right here, that we\u2019re in \u2013 Russell Westbrook not being on a roster \u2013 is what hurt me and Russell Westbrook\u2019s personal relationship,\u201d Perkins told Richard Jefferson during a recent episode of their Road Trippin\u2019 podcast.<\/p>\n
Westbrook was deeply insulted by the warning, and the situation escalated to a point where their wives got involved, according to Perkins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A few years ago, Kendrick Perkins urged Russell Westbrook to \u201ctemper it down\u201d or he might run himself out the league, according to conversations he\u2019d had with NBA general managers. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, our relationship was over with,\u201d Perkins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ain\u2019t doing nothing but doing my job,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not killing Russ. I\u2019m not killing him \u2013 these are reports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kendrick Perkins and Russell Westbrook competed for an NBA championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Those reports weren\u2019t lying. <\/p>\n
Westbrook declined his $3.47 million player option with the Nuggets after the 2024-25 season \u2014 and no one has come calling since.\u00a0He averaged 21.2 points, eight assists and seven rebounds per game last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut here we are, at this very moment, when Russ opted out of his last year in Denver \u2026 the only team that had interest, per reports, was Sacramento,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cAnd here we are, starting the season, and Russell Westbrook is not on a roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time will tell if Westbrook takes the court this season, just like it confirmed that he probably should have listened to his former teammate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA player-turned-media personality Kendrick Perkins revealed that he\u2019s\u00a0no longer on speaking terms\u00a0with his former teammate, Russell Westbrook. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[36975,355,14828,99,3015],"class_list":["post-203919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-kendrick-perkins","tag-nba","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-sports","tag-sports-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}