Basketball · Issue No. 23
The Takeaway: Know Who's Actually Supervising Your Kid When You're Not There
Week of September 14, 2026
THE TAKEAWAY: A viral coaching incident turned partly on the fact that a player's own parents weren't present at the tournament — worth knowing before sending a kid to compete without you.
Former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins found himself at the center of a viral moment in May 2026 after an altercation at his son's AAU basketball game in Norman, Oklahoma. Video showed the 6-foot-10 Perkins being physically held back by his own coaching staff while shouting at someone off-camera, following what he says was another team's coach body-slamming one of his players to the ground after the game.
Perkins didn't deny the confrontation. He addressed it directly on ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" and on social media, explaining that the player who'd been slammed to the ground had come to the tournament without his own parents present — meaning, in Perkins's telling, that the responsibility to protect that kid fell to him as the coach. "I'm going to protect every single kid in my organization like they're my own," he said, adding that he didn't regret stepping in, even if the optics of a nearly seven-foot man needing to be restrained were bad.
It wasn't Perkins's first headline-making moment at a youth game — he was previously ejected from an AAU game in 2023 under similar circumstances. Both times, his explanation has centered on protecting players, not personal conflict with other adults.
Whether or not Perkins handled the moment perfectly, the underlying instinct he's describing — an adult stepping in when a kid appears to be in real physical danger, especially one without a parent present — is different from the garden-variety parent-versus-ref shouting matches that make up most of these stories. It's also a useful reminder for any parent sending a kid to a tournament without them: know who's actually supervising your child when you're not in the stands, and know that even well-intentioned adults reacting to real danger can end up part of the story themselves.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 23, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.