#Jay Williams mocks ESPN colleague Kendrick Perkins for Joel Embiid take

Kendrick Perkins joined ESPN’s “First Take” Wednesday to sound off on Joel Embiid’s concerns over the NBA’s planned restart and the “bubble” they will attempt to maintain.

“Unfortunately… this video lacks empathy,” Williams said of the clip.

Embiid said he “hated” the idea of playing in Orlando, but will still be joining his teammates and compete.

“To me, all I want is to stay healthy and stay safe, keep the people around me safe,” Embiid told reporters Tuesday. “I want to make sure I’m able to live for a long time and not have any sort of consequence in the future from this if I were to be in a situation where I was getting the virus.

“Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of the idea. But then again, I’m going to do my job. I’m not going to let the city down. I’m going to represent my city – that’s what I’ve always done – my family, my teammates. The mindset doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter the fact that I don’t like that idea and I still don’t believe in it. I don’t think it’s going to be safe enough.”

Perkins chastised Embiid for these comments, accusing the three-time All-Star of creating potential excuses for if/when the 76ers are eliminated.

“Do you want to hoop or not? I don’t hear none of the other contenders complaining,” Perkins said in the clip. “I don’t hear LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard complaining. I don’t hear Jayson Tatum and Giannis [Antetokounmpo] complaining… To me, this is just an excuse. If they get knocked out, this is gonna be the excuse because ‘their superstar was halfway in. His mental wasn’t there. Oh, I’m complaining, I don’t like the idea.’ Man go down there and hoop. I ain’t trying to hear that, man. That’s a billion-dollar bubble. Check ball, like Pat Beverly said. Check it up.”

Perkins responded to Williams’ criticism on Twitter.

“You got my number homeboy… you know exactly what I was saying and meant,” Perkins tweeted. “The question was ‘do you have sympathy for Embiid?’ I said no because the league gave everybody an option… and he decided to play so stop complaining about it and go hoop.”