ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins went off about the league’s officiating during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday.
The comments came after Thursday night’s Game 2 of the second-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, which featured officiating that drew plenty of criticism from Lakers head coach JJ Redick and the basketball world.
Stan Van Gundy called out a “big-time acting job” on a flop from Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren that was initially ruled an offensive foul on the Lakers’ Deandre Ayton. “That’s an absolute flop,” Van Gundy said while serving as the game’s color commentator for Prime Video. “I hope they don’t give him this call, because we need to get rid of the flops.”
On Friday morning, ESPN’s Jay Williams said, “Last night was maybe one of the worst officiating games I’ve seen in a long time.”
Perkins, an NBA champion with the Boston Celtics and a starting big man with the Thunder over his 14-year career, told McAfee, “We have a problem. We have a serious problem right now, and that game last night highlighted it.”
“We have a serious problem right now, and that game last night highlighted it.”@kendrickperkins shares concerns about officiating in the NBA playoffs on the @PatMcAfeeShow. pic.twitter.com/cfqIQ4p9Ub
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 8, 2026
“I love Adam Silver,” Perkins said. “I think he’s the best commissioner in sports. I love that he’s a man of the people. And with that being said, he’s going to have to listen to the people. They have a lot of upset fans that are on the internet, that were watching the game, that didn’t like the way that that game was called last night. And I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t either. As a matter of fact, I hated it. Every single moment of it. There was nothing but complaining. There was a lot of flopping going on. It was a lot of no-calls.”
“When you get players, and this has been a trend throughout the postseason, calling out officiating, you have to address it,” Perkins explained. “And it’s not just addressing the players with fines; that’s one thing. But the officials gotta have some level of accountability. And also, you don’t want to get to the point where fans are sitting up here talking about the game as rigged. Because we do have to take in mind that, what’s one of the biggest moneymakers out there? Betting. Sports betting. So, we don’t want to start messing and having fans thinking that there’s something going on with integrity of the game.”
“So, you’ve got to clean up this flopping nonsense,” Perkins continued. “You have to clean it up. Last night, I thought it was extremely bad. I thought OKC, all across the board, this was one of their worst moments, in my opinion. You know how I feel about OKC. You know how I feel about [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander]. But damn it, I’ve got to call it like I see it. Facts over feelings.”
This is sure to remain a huge storyline throughout the 2026 NBA Playoffs, especially if the officiating doesn’t get considerably better.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.