While both James and Haslem downplayed Westbrook’s foul as one of exuberance in the heat of the moment, Haslem pointedly took umbrage to Perkins’ shove against Wade.
Recall, earlier this season Perkins derided James for drawing attention to Blake Griffin‘s highlight-of-the-season dunk on Perkins. Perkins also has a push-come-to-shove history with the Heat dating to his tenure with the Boston Celtics.
That had Haslem firing back on his radio appearance.
“I think sometimes people just use the TVs and the cameras and the crowd, you know, to put on a show,” Haslem said of Perkins. “I don’t think he’s all that he shows out there on the court.
Haslem said that Perkins wouldn’t play the way he does on the NBA court “in the park.” Haslem and Perkins verbally sparred with each other multiple times on Wednesday, and Perkins picked up his 12th technical of the season -- if Perkins gets one more, he will be suspended for a game.
After the game, Wade told the media that the Heat are not “fake tough guys” -- as Winderman points out, Kevin Durant called Chris Bosh one of the league’s “fake tough guys” last season.
To me, this is all a bit tiresome -- Wade, Bosh, Haslem, and Perkins may or may not be fake tough guys, but they’re all real basketball players, and that’s what people should be focusing on when they take the court for their teams, who both seem to be on their way to long playoff runs in the coming months.
