Udonis Haslem calls Kendrick Perkins a “dirty” player, criticizes fake tough guy routine
Oklahoma City Thunder big man Kendrick Perkins is known for being a menacing player on the court. Let’s just say you’d be hard-pressed to find a picture of him smiling. Perkins received a technical after a hard foul on Dwyane Wade Wednesday night, and drew criticism from Miami forward Udonis Haslem after the game. From the Sun-Sentinel:
While both James and Haslem downplayed Westbrook’s foul as one of exuberance in the heat of the moment, Haslem pointedly took umbrage to Perkins’ shove against Wade.
Recall, earlier this season Perkins derided James for drawing attention to Blake Griffin‘s highlight-of-the-season dunk on Perkins. Perkins also has a push-come-to-shove history with the Heat dating to his tenure with the Boston Celtics.
That had Haslem firing back on his radio appearance.
“I think sometimes people just use the TVs and the cameras and the crowd, you know, to put on a show,” Haslem said of Perkins. “I don’t think he’s all that he shows out there on the court.
“I think anybody can be a tough guy with a thousand people watching on TV and referees who call fouls and stop the game and different things like that. I don’t seeing him being any tough guy that he puts on the show to be, at all.”
Perkins has gotten into trouble in both meetings with the Heat this year, first wrapping his leg over Wade and most recently the extremely hard foul. Russell Westbrook was also called for a flagrant foul after bringing down LeBron James on a dunk attempt.
Udonis Haslem wasn’t the only player to voice his opinion following the heated contest. Wade seemingly reminisced about a comment from Thunder forward Kevin Durant that Chris Bosh was a “fake tough guy” during the 2010-11 season.
Wade took it a step further, rounding up his teammates, in his role as co-captain with Haslem, amid Wednesday’s second-quarter tension.
“I said, ‘Look what they’re doing to us, look at what they’re doing to our guys,’ ” Wade said following Wednesday’s game, with the Heat given Thursday off in advance of Friday’s visit by the Memphis Grizzlies. “When it’s time for these kind of games, we have guys who can step up and do it.”
He then offered a most curious choice of words, considering that last season Thunder forward Kevin Durant called Heat forward Chris Bosh one of the league’s “fake tough guys.”
“We’re not fake tough guys, we’re not TV thugs,” Wade continued. “We go out and play basketball. When it’s time to get into the fight, we have a lot of guys who can get into it.”
The next possible matchup between the two teams would be the NBA Finals.
H/T Iamagm.com
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