Kendrick Perkins takes offense to Shaquille O'Neal & Charles Barkley's 'roach' claim: "You might as well spit in my face"

Former NBA player Kendrick Perkins has taken offense to legends Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley calling him a roach.

During the playoff semifinals between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers, O'Neal and Barkley, analysts for TNT, chose the Pacers to win the best-of-seven series. However, Perkins disagreed with their take. He mentioned that the two big men don't watch basketball and have no idea what they're talking about. The 2008 champion picked the Knicks and gave credit to what they've done this season.

This led Barkley to address Perkins as a "roach" and question his basketball skills.

In an interview with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson, Perkins said he wasn't okay with being addressed as a roach.

"A roach? That’s what y’all on?" Perkins said. "We kill roaches in Black neighborhoods. They’re everywhere. From another Black man to another Black man you can’t never call nobody no roach.

"You might as well spit in my face. And I don’t have any beef with Charles or Shaq. My thing is the whole ‘roach’ thing. I don’t mind the punching bag, but the roach thing? C’mon man."

Perkins was referring to an episode of Inside the NBA, where the crew set up a punching bag with Perkins' picture and called it a "roach." Barkley put on boxing gloves and threw multiple punches, while O'Neal also had his way with the bag.

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Kendrick Perkins has beef with LeBron James

At the start of the NBA Finals, LeBron James reminisced about being teammates with Kyrie Irving. While most fans took a trip down memory lane with the LA Lakers star, Kendrick Perkins called out the four-time champion for seemingly stealing attention from the Finals.

This resulted in James unfollowing him on X. Perkins was unbothered and even compared himself to a religious figure.

"Everybody didn’t follow Jesus, I’ll be ok," Perkins posted.

James and Perkins played together for one season with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017-18. Perk only played in one game that season, his last in the NBA.

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