Rising NBA stars might respect LeBron James as the face of the league for decades, but that doesn’t mean they look up to him.
After the NBA had what was largely considered a successful All-Star event for the first time in years, the Slam Dunk Contest continues to be an embarrassing blemish on the weekend. Monday morning on First Take, Stephen A. Smith accused James of ruining the dunk contest by starting the trend of All-Stars avoiding the event.
But according to Kendrick Perkins, James was never the trendsetter.
Kendrick Perkins says none of the young players look up to or idolize Lebron, they look up to players like Kobe and KD 🔥
Nobody looks up to that no bag having fraud 😭😭
(h/t @pete_nocchio1) pic.twitter.com/XD8q3W7657
— TheTruth (@TheTruth8240) February 16, 2026
“A lot of these guys, these young stars and rising superstars, they don’t look up to LeBron anyway,” Perkins said. “So, they’re not following his footsteps. A lot of these guys looked up to Kobe. A lot of these guys come on record and talk about how they look up to Kevin Durant more so than they look up to LeBron James, They don’t idolize him.”
What began as Kendrick Perkins defending LeBron James from being blamed for ruining the Dunk Contest quickly turned into a sort of backhanded compliment by alleging young stars don’t look up to the 41-year-old. According to Perkins, young stars aren’t skipping the dunk contest because of the precedent set by James.
The question is, why don’t young stars look up to James? He’s a four-time league MVP, a four-time champion and Finals MVP. He’s a 22-time All-Star, the league’s all-time leading scorer, and might be the longest-tenured face of the NBA. What is it about James that has younger players looking up to Kevin Durant instead?
Perkins was briefly a teammate of LeBron’s. He saw how younger stars like Kyrie Irving acted around and with LeBron, so his account might come from first-hand experience. And while Kyrie Irving made it clear that he never considered LeBron James a “father figure,” you would still expect LeBron to be someone younger stars looked up to as the longtime face if the NBA.