JJ Redick and Kendrick Perkins are Turning the NBA MVP Discussion into an Annoying Race War

ESPN’s First Take is a show that exists exclusively to generate clicks online and to create narratives that the network can then further discuss for the next 24 hours until the next episode of First Take. Participants on the show are encouraged to argue the most mundane bullshit with zero nuance. The more outlandish you are, the better.

Kendrick Perkins is asked to come on the show because he’s willing to throw out silly nonsense without caring about all the negative feedback he gets on social media. He’s a troll given one of the biggest platforms in the world. He forces us to talk about the garbage he spews solely based on the reach of his words. He’s like if a photo-less Twitter account with 5 followers was given millions of viewers a day to be an asshole contrarian.

JJ Redick is asked to come on the show so they can pretend as if their show has real analysis and experts. He’s the straight man making faces while chaos ensues around him. Unfortunately, the more JJ goes on First Take, the more he looks like a condescending know-it-all who is quickly morphing from a fresh new smart voice of reason to an irritating prick.

But the REAL secret formula to the success of ESPN’s First Take is having racial undertones permeating throughout the entire show.

All of the key cogs came into place this week as JJ Redick and Kendrick Perkins battled over the NBA MVP:

Kendrick Perkins has a meltdown after JJ Reddick confronts him for implying that race is the reason Nikola Jokic has won his MVPs pic.twitter.com/25HvsH8bcc

— hoops bot (@hoops_bot) March 7, 2023

Earlier in the week, Kendrick Perkins introduced race into the NBA MVP debate as he claimed the media wants Jokic to win his third MVP in a row because Jokic has the same skin color as the MVP voters.

This causes JJ to respond with “The implication — what you are implying, that the white voters that vote on NBA are racist. They favor white people. You just said that.”, because of course JJ is pissed at Kendrick. We’ve already established that Perkins exists solely to spit out garbage takes and there is nothing white people hate more than the implication of being called racist.

But that’s what makes this whole debate so annoying. Kendrick Perkins is right. Nikola Jokic is being treated like a god and being handed his third straight MVP award because he’s white.

Jokic should be the MVP this year. He’s the best basketball player in the world. But we’ve seen MVP voters resist the urge to give players three consecutive MVP awards. We literally just saw it with Giannis who deserved to win a third MVP in 2021 (and still does this season) but people find a bajillion excuses to keep him out of that exclusive three-straight MVP club.

Meanwhile, I haven’t heard any reasons why Jokic shouldn’t win three straight. In fact, he’s been given even more praise this season than he had in his previous two MVP campaigns. He’s getting all of this extra love because he looks like the white people who vote for the award and he does all the analytical nerdy shit that these white NBA nerds celebrate.

It’s wild for JJ Redick to sit there with his very white face and say “racism doesn’t exist” but that’s the problem with First Take. There is no nuance. They can’t sit there and sift through the information. They need to shout at each other and make crazy sweeping generalizations.

We know racism affects MVP voting. Steve Nash has two MVP trophies despite being nowhere near as good as guys like Kobe and LeBron who were having better seasons than him but Nash ‘plays the game the right way’. Ya know, the same things people say about Jokic. The same things people said about Larry Bird. Interesting.

But what makes this race war so annoying is that Jokic truly should win the MVP regardless of biases. The Denver Nuggets are the best team in the Western Conference and Jokic is having a better season than his previous two MVP-winning seasons.

It’s the dickriding and complete dismissal of other MVP candidates where the racism seeps in. White media is aware that Jokic is the no. 1 guy in the league and they are using that as their chance to over-praise the guy who looks like their buddy from college who used to drink and then fall asleep with his eyes open.

And if you don’t think this bias exists, then ask yourself why none of your favorite white NBA media nerds haven’t even tried to poke holes in Jokic’s MVP argument. Sure, the Nuggets are the 1 seed in a conference where the number 2 seed is a Sacramento Kings team ranked 26th in defensive rating.

The entire conference is full of mid-ass teams. Joel Embiid and Giannis have to beat the bone marrow out of each other every week while Jokic and the Nuggets take on a Karl-Anthony Town-less Timberwolves and a Grizzlies team more focused on slap boxing Shannon Sharpe than actually winning basketball games.

Again, Jokic is the best player but we’ve seen every best player get completely torn down before they come anywhere near winning their third straight MVP. Not Nikola though who is apparently bulletproof and that has everything to do with a media full of guys who reward Jokic for his lack of athleticism because they, too, cannot dunk a basketball.

Kendrick Perkins is the worst messenger for this, of course, so now we have to tip-toe around this obvious thing that’s happening because Kendrick says the least thought-out, low-IQ rubbish every time a camera is in his face.

This whole thing is annoying. Here are 3 things that are true: