Kendrick Perkins Fell for Viral Joke About NBA Player’s Enormous Growth Spurt

ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins was recording a TV hit with SportsCenter on Tuesday, discussing Draymond Green’s decision to opt-out of his $27.6 million player option to enter free agency, when things took a bizarre turn.

During the discussion, Perkins spoke about the decisions that new general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. needed to make with the roster, and how those decisions could impact whether or not Green returned to the Warriors.

As Perkins began talking about the roster, he spoke about Jonathan Kuminga, the young up-and-coming wing for Golden State who seems to be improving quickly and becoming a key member of the rotation for the Warriors. Except when Perkins got into Kuminga’s improvement, it appears that he fell for a viral Twitter joke about the wing’s height that’s been circulating among NBA fans all over the internet. 

Awful Announcing was the first to draw the link between the viral tweet and comments that Perkins made on television.

Here is the original viral tweet, which insinuated that Kuminga grew from 6’ 7” to over 7-feet tall this offseason.

Those "reports" come from here ???? pic.twitter.com/esDc0uxDVe

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 21, 2023

Perkins saw the tweet, and took it and ran with it.

“From reports, I’m hearing that Jonathan Kuminga is now 7’ 2”,” Perkins began. “The kid has gotten better every single season. He’s got a nice skill set and his athleticism is through the roof.”

Kendrick Perkins fell for the viral Twitter joke that 6'7" Jonathan Kuminga has sprouted to 7'2". ???? pic.twitter.com/frW5W9gLTx

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 21, 2023

As for Perkins, he knows that he fell for the joke, responding on Twitter as only he could on Tuesday night.

“I hate this damn app,” he wrote with crying laughing emojis.

I hate this damn app???????????? https://t.co/oYPImLP15p

— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) June 21, 2023