“The pettiness and I’m here for it” – Kendrick Perkins thinks Adam Silver matching up the Rockets and Thunder on banner night is genius originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The NBA’s reigning champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, will get their spotlight as they will be the featured team in the first game of the 2025-26 NBA season on Opening Night.
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However, while the Thunder will get to celebrate raising their first championship banner and the players will receive their individual championship rings, the league matched them up against a team that isn’t just projected to be their toughest challenger next season but is also led by the player who first put OKC on the NBA map – the Houston Rockets.
According to ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, the NBA matching up the Thunder against Kevin Durant‘s new team is sinister, knowing the tension that exists between the OKC fan base and KD.
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“By the way, we have rubbed off,” said Perkins. “The NBA Today family have rubbed off on Adam Silver. The pettiness, and I’m here for it. Damn it, yeah, the pettiness. Houston in OKC? KD in OKC? The fan base still have yet to give him a round of applause for returning. Now, all of a sudden, you get to see the great KD walk into the building and watch not only the franchise he left raise their first banner, but also watch the best franchise player ever get his ring. It’s going to be smoke in the city and I wish I could be there.”
KD was OKC’s first superstar
Durant was the Seattle SuperSonics’ No.2 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. After winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2008, the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City, and Kevin became the Thunder’s first-ever All-Star player and the first player in franchise history to win the NBA’s MVP award.
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With Durant at the helm, the Thunder reached the NBA Finals in only their fourth season in their new home city. However, KD left OKC in 2016 to join the Golden State Warriors, where he won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, the Thunder plummeted after his departure, but since getting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City has been on a roll and last season, they won their first NBA title.
“If I’m KD, I go in the back,” Perkins said about the banner raising and ring ceremony before the game. “I don’t want to watch it. If I’m KD, I’m coming with the mindset that I want to upset them, and disappoint, and be a spoiler on their ring ceremony night.”
Durant trolled the Thunder recently
Durant’s recent comments about the Thunder could add more fuel to the fire. After the opening night schedule was released, KD was busy responding to fans on the internet, which he enjoys doing. One fan asked him how Kevin would feel watching the team he deserted do what he failed to do while there — raise their first-ever championship banner.
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“Finally. It’s been 10 years, bout time they win one lmaooo,” sarcastically tweeted KD.
And when a Thunder fan called him out for being selfish because he left OKC to win a “sure” ring in Golden State, Durant replied: “You’re right, I care more about me than I care about your fanbase. You caught me lmao.”
Durant enjoys arguing with fans online, and the audience loves to troll KD because he always answers back. This, too, is being petty and add it to what Perk said was Commissioner Silver’s pettiness in matching the Rockets and Thunder on opening night, and it should be fireworks at the PayCom Center on October 21st.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 13, 2025, where it first appeared.