Kendrick Perkins would prefer LeBron James find a black co-host for his podcast.

That is clearly the point the ESPN commentator tried to make on Thursday while discussing James’ ongoing WWE-style feud with Stephen A. Smith.

Perkins, hardly the brightest tool in the shed, criticized James for replacing J.J. Redick with Steve Nash as his new podcast host. He then listed four random black players/coaches who James should have chosen instead.

Smith agreed:

“I’ll just leave it at that,” Perkins exclaimed with a wink in his eye.

As readers know, sports television is full of ex-players who have deeply rooted issues with white people. Turn on ESPN during any segment in which these players discuss Nikola Jokic, Josh Allen, or Caitlin Clark. The animus is palpable.

Perkins is chief among–well, right after Gilbert Arenas,

Most notably, Perkins cost Jokic the NBA MVP award in 2023 by falsely accusing voters of racial bias. Two years later, he still refuses to acknowledge Jokic as the best player in the game, instead arguing in favor of about six different black players.

You don’t like Jokic. We get.

Unfortunately, politically motivated hysteria has convinced certain black Americans to view white people as their enemy. Black people who feel this way can be reluctant to accept white people in predominately black spaces, like hip-hop and basketball.

Here’s social media influencer Dr. Umar Johnson last year on why he wishes the rap community would disqualify Eminem from the discussion of the greatest rappers of all time:

“No non-African can ever be the best of anything African. It’s an insult to the ancestors. It’s an insult to the race and it’s an insult to every black person. Eminem has all the privileges of a white male and all the privileges of being in the hip-hop community, so we got to be careful about letting non-Africans into our community.”

Got it.

Likewise, Perkins is territorial about the game of basketball. To him, the rise of white superstars is threatening. Players like Jokic, Clark, Luka, or Duke phenom Cooper Flagg seem to make him uncomfortable. 

So, of course, he has an issue with LeBron James also legitimizing white voices by allowing them to co-star on his podcast. He’d prefer LeBron treat his podcast like most of the shows on ESPN, where only black commentators appear:

As you see, LeBron’s podcast is too diverse for Perkins’ liking.