(HorizonPost.com) – “First Take” host on EPSN issued an apology after former NBA player Kendrick Perkins suggested that Nikola Jokic was chosen as a contender for the MVP because the voters are 80% white, according to The Daily Caller. Molly Qerim made sure that the record was set straight.
“When Kendrick Perkins said 80% of NBA voters for the MVP award are white, the NBA publicly announces the voters each year and after review, it is clear the panel is much more diverse than what was portrayed…and we wanted to make sure we corrected that today,” she said.
Former NBA player J.J. Redick also countered Perkins’ implication on First Take. Redick said that the problem with the show is that narratives not grounded in reality are constructed. Perkins began to deny that he ever implied Jokic was a contender because the voters were white before yelling at Redick that his comment was a “fact.”
Originally responding to Redick’s criticism, Perkins went on another episode of First Take and talked about the past MVP winners who were not in the league’s top 10. The winners were all white, leading him to believe that it was racial bias that led them to receive the award. He said that Steve Nash, who first won the award in 2004 and then again in 2006, was not comparable to Kobe Bryant who surpassed his record.
Perkins said that the goalposts are continuously moving so that one or another player could win the award while there are other qualified players.
“What song are we actually dancing to right now, why is this subject not brought up,” he asked.
Should Jokic win the MVP award this year, then he would be the fourth player to have won three consecutive times. The other three players are Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Larry Bird.
Copyright 2023, HorizonPost.com
