sport news Charles Barkley slams Kendrick Perkins' suggestion Nikola Jokic wins MVPs ... trends now
Charles Barkley has attacked fellow NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins, saying the ESPN personality was wrong to suggest that Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic's two MVP awards are the product of racism.
'I always talk about ESPN disease,' The Basketball Hall of Famer and long-time TNT analyst told Denver's Altitude Sports Radio. 'A lot of these guys, when they get on TV and stuff, they're like, 'Well, I'm on ESPN, I got to say something provocative.' And you know the thing about it, you're always gonna get some fools out there, you guys probably get some fools calling in agreeing with him.
'That's the thing that bothers me at times,' Barkley continued. 'I can promise you this, I've never said anything on television just to get clicks. That don't mean I've been right or wrong, whatever. But I've never said something like, ''Well, I know people are going to react and go crazy, let me say this.'''
Perkins, a former NBA center, seemed to suggest last week that Jokic benefits from racist white MVP voters in the media.
'When it comes down to guys winning MVPs since 1990, it's only three guys that won the MVP that wasn't top-10 in scoring,' Perkins said on ESPN's First Take, listing three white players. 'Do you know who those three guys were? Steve Nash, Jokic and Dirk Nowitzki. Now, what do those guys have in common? I'll let it sit there and marinate. You think about it.
Charles Barkley (left) has attacked fellow NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins (right), saying the ESPN personality was wrong to suggest that Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic's two MVP awards are the product of racism
'When it comes to MVP voting, 80 percent of the voters are white Americans,' he said Tuesday, without citing a source for his information.
Jokic, a native Serbian, was sixth in the NBA in scoring last season at 27.1 points a game when he won his second straight MVP, a year after finishing tied for 10th at 26.4 per clip.
Of course, it's Jokic's overall game that has positioned him for a third straight MVP in 2022-23 as he threatens to become just the third player in league history to average a triple-double, following Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook.
Entering Wednesday, the 28-year-old was averaging 24.4 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 10 assists a game, while making an impressive 63.4 percent of his field goals, 40.4 percent of his 3-point attempts, and 82.2 percent of his free throws.
Perkins also suggested that Jokic has been padding his stats at the cost of his team's success, but the Nuggets have actually won the last 28 games in which the multifaceted center has recorded a triple-double.
