Oklahoma City Thunder: Perkins vs. Duncan, by osmosis - NewsOK.com (blog)

on May 25, 2012M at 9:30 am

Tim Duncan hates Kevin Garnett. So says Christ Ballard’s recent Sports Illustrated profile of Duncan. The Spurs superstar and Garnett have been combatants for 15 years.

Here’s an excerpt: “Duncan hates Kevin Garnett. Hates him the way liberals hate Sean Hannity. This information comes from very reliable sources, who talk about how KG has made a career of trying to punk Duncan, baiting him and slapping him and whispering really weird smack into his ear. They talk about how funny this is, because the worst thing you can do as an opponent is piss off Duncan…” You can find the entire profile here:

With the Thunder-Spurs Western Conference Finals approaching, we’re going to see an awful lot of Duncan in the next week or two. And you know what that means.

If Garnett has declared war on Durant, Kendrick Perkins will follow suit. Perk is a loyal ally of Garnett, his mentor with the Boston Celtics before Perk was traded to Oklahoma City.

“It got to,” said the man I like to call Gran Torino. “That’s my mentor, that’s my big homie. So I just follow his lead. That’s how it is. It’s nothing personal. Just what it is.”

From where does Garnett’s rage against Duncan come? “Battles in the Western Conference,” Perk said. “Each guy got a lot of pride. Probably want to be the best power forward. That’s where that comes from.”

Perkins has played in a ton of big playoff games. He was the starting center on a Celtic team that won the 2008 NBA title and a Celtic team lost Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. And Perk says he will get jacked up for the series against the Spurs.

“Absolutely,” Gran Torino said. “Playing against the Spurs, who’s one of the elite franchises in the NBA, just at the top of the chart. Tim Duncan and (Gregg) Popovich got, what is it, the best winning percentage for a coach and a player? What they’ve done over the years is phenomenal. We’re an upcoming team trying to get where they’re at. Just to face them is a pleasure.”

And if the Thunder knocks off the Spurs, awaiting in the Finals could be none other than Garnett and the Celtics.
Said Perk, “It couldn’t be better.”

-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.

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