1. I don’t know if it’s the higher temperatures or the sports drought we are facing until football starts in a couple of months or something else, but sports media folks can’t stop fighting with each other in recent weeks.
The latest feud stars ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons.
While it seemed that every single person who watched ESPN’s coverage of the NBA draft earlier this week trashed it, it was Simmons’s commentary that triggered Perkins .
Here’s what Simmons said after the first night of the draft on Wednesday, via The Ringer’s YouTube channel:
“Toronto took Collin Murray-Boyles leading Kendrick Perkins … I didn’t know which telecast to watch. It was like, do I take this samurai sword and jam it into my temple or do I take this chainsaw and saw my leg off? I couldn’t figure it out. They took Collin Murray-Boyles and Perk said they had the pieces to be a top six team in the East. And at that point I started looking for a third ESPN channel, but there were only two covering the draft. There wasn’t a third one. At least one that I could find.”
— Vid Clip Hero (@VidClipHero) June 26, 2025
While I found the samurai sword and chainsaw references amusing, Perkins did not. The ESPN analyst was very unhappy about being name checked by Simmons.
So Perkins did that thing that people do in this day and age, and he took to his iPhone to fire back at Simmons (while sitting in his car). In a hilarious twist, Perkins warned everyone that he would be waiting until Sunday to address Simmons WHILE ADDRESSING SIMMONS IN THAT MOMENT.
Perkins got things off and running with, “Thinking about Bill Simmons, cupcake ass.” Well alrighty then.
“Always got my name in his mouth,” Perkins continued. “But I’m gonna address you Sunday. Believe that. I’m gonna address you on my special edition, mine only, yours truly, Sunday on Road Trippin’. They gave me my spot. I’m gonna get on your ass like back pockets. Cause I’m about tired of you.”
Since Perkins promised to get on the rear end of Simmons on Sunday, you’d think that would be the end of the iPhone video, but it was not. It should’ve been, though, because then Perkins went into that tired and nonsensical theory that someone who didn’t play basketball can’t have an opinion about basketball.
“I don’t know who anointed you the preacher, the king, the head honcho of overseeing basketball, the way things need to be,” wondered Perkins. “What have you done? What have you done. What have you done, period, in the game of basketball? Have you ever played?”
You know who anointed Simmons an NBA expert? NBA fans. Simmons has been podcasting for a million years and still, each and every week, his show is in the top three when it comes listenership. Not to mention, Simmons has 5.4 million followers on Twitter. Perkins has 727,000.
So to question Simmons as an NBA authority makes zero sense.
“I usually don’t even address people because I don’t really care about it, but it’s pissing me off because you feel like you sitting on this thrown,” continued Perkins. “You got in your feelings because I said that I felt like the Toronto Raptors are gonna be a top six seed in the Eastern Conference this upcoming season. So? That wasn’t a crazy take or anything to that nature. It’s a real thing, fool.”
This was the vintage Aaron Rodgers move, where he rants at length about something on Pat McAfee’s show while saying, “I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.” Perkins doesn’t address people and doesn’t care about it, but he made a two-plus-minute video going off on Simmons. Perfect.
Perkins then spent a little time blabbing on about the Eastern Conference and the Raptors roster before getting back to Simmons.
“Man, shut up,” Perkins told Simmons. “You didn’t think before you started drinking them Heineken’s. And then you got your little peanut gallery up on the podcast who just agree. ‘Yeah, Bill, Yeah, Bill, Yeah, you’re right.’ Stand up. Stand up. Man, shut the hell up.”
Perkins seems like he REALLY wants Simmons to shut up.
“But I’m gonna get more on your ass come Sunday, believe that,” declared Perkins. “I’m gonna finish doing my research on you. Enough is enough. Like you’re some kind of head honcho.”
Ill address your ass @BillSimmons on Sunday my Guy pic.twitter.com/PatmWMhIL6
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) June 26, 2025
Research? Getting Simmons’s ass? Acting like people are gonna be refreshing social media all day on Sunday to get the takedown? The combination of hilarity and sadness is impressive.
When I finished watching Perkins’s iPhone car video, I had one thought and one thought only: Imagine getting this worked up over a Toronto Raptors take.
2. The future of NBA TV seems to be up in the air. It was learned on Friday that TNT Sports will no longer handle production for the network after doing so for the past 17 seasons.
TNT Sports will continue to operate NBA TV and NBA.com through September before the partnership ends on Oct. 1.
3. The first night of the NBA draft on Wednesday drew 3.77 million viewers for ABC/ESPN. That was down 14% from last year.
4. I’m gonna need one of these.
“I love a good nap. Sometimes it's the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning.” - George Costanza
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 26, 2025
Join us at @yankeestadium on Thursday, August 21 for Seinfeld Night! 1st 18,000 guests will receive a George Costanza Bobblehead 🎟️👉https://t.co/9qKKKUfDRJ pic.twitter.com/68dJDkvLZN
5. You’d think S-O-T-O would be fairly easy to spell, but not for these Mets fans.
#LGM fans unable to spell Soto pic.twitter.com/KtkNnstzlH
— Carter (@Cardunals) June 27, 2025
6. This week’s episode of the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation about all of the latest sports media news with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch.
Topics discussed during the podcast include how Stephen A. Smith became an ongoing story during the NBA Finals; the ratings for the Pacers-Thunder series; whether all the off-court storylines regarding Caitlin Clark help or hurt the WNBA; a couple of recent live broadcasting moments that made headlines; Amazon vs. NBC for next year’s NBA coverage; the WWE’s upcoming Netflix series that promises an unprecedented behind-the-scenes-look; and much more.
Following Deitsch, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss the sad state of New York baseball, the new season of Quarterback on Netflix and the trailer for the new Bruce Springsteen biopic featuring Jeremy Allen White. Additionally, I respond to listener emails.
You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I’ve always felt that Between Two Ferns doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being one of the funniest things ever created and I stand by that take after recently rewatching a few episodes.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins Issues Hilarious, Sad Warning to Bill Simmons.
