In the wake of Thanksgiving and with the calendars flipped to December, many have begun decorating for Christmas and other winter holidays. That includes sports networks such as ESPN. But the network caught a stray from inside the house Wednesday. There, SportsCenter host Kevin Negandhi brought ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins in to discuss the NBA Cup, but Perkins started his interview by first praising Negandhi’s suit, then roasting the Christmas tree on the SC set:
“That [SportsCenter] studio is too damn big for that small-ass Christmas tree… That small, skinny-ass tree… we’ve gotta do better than that.” – Kendrick Perkins 🏀📺🎄 pic.twitter.com/oITjCYiCmc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 4, 2024
“First, Kev, before I start, there’s two things. One, I’m loving the suit combo, the tie, the clip, I’m loving that it. But here’s the thing, that studio is too damn big for that small-ass Christmas tree. We’ve got to upgrade that a little bit more. That small, skinny-ass tree, man, we’ve gotta do better than that.”
It’s pretty funny to hear Perkins roasting ESPN’s set decoration on ESPN airwaves. But he’s certainly renowned for saying what he thinks, and that hasn’t hurt his ESPN standing thus far; indeed; he picked up a contract extension from the company earlier this year. And he does have a point here; that tree looks to be much smaller than even the video screen it’s near. Perkins does have some new responsibilities at ESPN under this new deal; we’ll see if those extend to set decoration consultations.
[Awful Announcing on X]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.