Photo: Approximate arrest location (via Google Street View) and the Kendrick Perkins arrest log via the Beaumont, TX police department
I’d like to thank the Internet for being itself this weekend and proving once again that most things need to be checked and re-checked before believing something is true.
The initial reports of what happened in Beaumont, Texas this weekend were like something out of a movie. There was talk about Kendrick Perkins hanging out with his good friends Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics and Stephen Jackson of the Milwaukee Bucks when thugs approached them and pulled guns. Somewhere along the way, the story went, the bullets flew, but somehow missed everyone like it was a shootout between Cobra and GI Joe.
Then, the reports were that Stephen Jackson was arrested along with Perkins on a slew of charges. I don’t know if that’s just by habit, but those were wrong too. In the end, as the story now stands, Perkins was out with his boys, after supposedly being dehydrated, and got into a little bit of an altercation. Police say Perk was drunk and he wanted to fight everybody but, beyond that, nothing happened.
The problem with Internet rumors is that they stick, regardless of whether they’re proven true. The latest version (which may still not be the final version for all we know) seems to be that Perkins got drunk and almost got into a fight. Welcome to every weekend in every bar everywhere. Yes, Perk needs to realize what he’s doing and temper his behavior more than others because he’s not just any guy. He’s an NBA player. He knows that when he does something, ANYTHING, it will get into the news. And with the proliferation of blogs and social media, it will hit the web quickly.
Is this a departure from Perk’s normal personality? Who knows? We see his temper on the court. To hear that he got belligerent somewhere is not a shock. He’s a hot tempered guy. And who knows if he got into scraps in Boston that were swept under the rug?
But people will always want to make a run at the big guy in the club. They’ll want to test themselves against the biggest guy there, and they’ll especially want to pull the “you ain’t nothin'” routine on a famous big guy who’s known for being a tough guy. The next time they go out, Perk will hopefully know better than to respond the way he did. And in the end, that’s all this situation is: a lesson learned in how to handle an adverse situation.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Perkins off the court and I hope that this is the last of the negative news for him. This can be no big deal for Perkins if he learns from it. A public intoxication charge is as dangerous to one’s reputation as the common cold is to one’s health. In a few days, it’s gone and forgotten. Unless, of course, it keeps on happening and it might be an indicator of a bigger problem.
