ESPN analyst JJ Redick responds to Kendrick Perkins’ insinuations about Dirk Nowitzki, other MVP selections

Kendrick Perkins caused controversy when he previously insinuated that race played a part in the reasoning that Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Nikola Jokic won their MVP awards.

On Tuesday, ESPN analyst and former NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick responded to Perkins’ claims on “First Take” deriding them.

Redick called out Perkins for cherry-picking data showing that since 1990 the only MVP award winners that did not rank top 10 in scoring average were Nowitzki, Nash and Jokic.

Redick pointed out that if he went back only a couple of years before 1990 Perkins would’ve seen that Magic Johnson had also won MVP without ranking in the top ten in scoring average.

Redick also used advanced statistics pointing out that Nowitzki led the league in win shares and offensive win shares the year he won the MVP.