Q&A with Kendrick Perkins, talks current Cs, Kobe, Kawhi (from the Athletic)

[ozgod]

I'm a subscriber to the Athletic and Jay King has a very interesting Q&A with Kendrick Perkins where he asks Perk about the current Celtics, how he would have dealt with any locker room drama, thoughts about Kyrie, and so on. It's behind a paywall so I'm pasting the article here for anyone who is interested. This interview was conducted BEFORE Game 5.

Q&A: Kendrick Perkins on Kyrie, Kawhi, Kobe, and watching this Celtics team struggle
By Jay King May 8, 2019  7 

MILWAUKEE – Kendrick Perkins’ 103,000 Twitter followers have noticed by now that he has thoughts. Thoughts on whether Kyrie Irving is Batman. Thoughts on Max Kellerman’s Kawhi Leonard-Kobe Bryant claim. Thoughts on the disappointing Celtics, who now trail the Bucks 3-1 in a second-round series.

Perkins, a starter on Boston’s 2008 championship team and a former teammate of Irving in Cleveland, has a valuable perspective on it all. Now enjoying retirement after playing his last game in 2018, Perkins agreed to share that perspective with The Athletic Wednesday morning. A lightly-edited transcript of the phone call with Perkins follows below.

Let’s start with the Game 4 disappointment. You noted the Celtics had zero togetherness out there. What were your thoughts watching the team crater like it did during the second half?

You always look at a team’s body language. It wasn’t enough talking on the floor. There didn’t seem like enough togetherness. And then you looked over at the bench, guys were talking, hanging their heads. And also you get just to the basketball part, not even just the emotional part of the basketball game, but, like, if you just looked at them play, it’s like no togetherness whatsoever. It wasn’t like they were all on the same page at all. Guys weren’t talking to each other. That shows a lot. From the outside looking in, it looked like zero togetherness. It looked like everybody was on their own, doing their own thing like a bunch of individuals playing out there the other night.

How does that make you feel watching a Celtics team play like that?

Basically, the things that they’re capable of doing, I mean, it’s very frustrating because the Celtics have a good team that they’ve put together. And for them not to be playing the way they’re supposed to be is very frustrating to watch because they’re a talented team. Like, they have a lot of talent. They’re deep. They’re well-coached. And really, there’s no excuse for that.

Do you ever hop on the group chat with your old Celtics teammates and wonder what’s going on with this year’s team?

Nah, but we talk occasionally. I know a lot of us old Celtics, we said that they did a great job of rebuilding, we had high expectations for them. And granted the series is not over until it’s over. But at least they have to show more heart. Right now they can’t just hang their hats on their talent or “we’ll make a great comeback” or whatever the case may be. But it just don’t look right, it just don’t feel right. Watching the energy, they just don’t seem together at all.

One point you made on Twitter was that Kyrie Irving’s not Batman. What makes you doubt his ability to be the leading guy? Just what he’s done this series or something else you’ve noticed?

I just think a lot of guys, you have guys that are All-Stars and elite players, but then you have your superstars. And there’s not that many Batmans around the league. I think Kyrie is a great player, don’t get me wrong. He’s a great player, he’s a proven player, he’s a champion. But is he a go-to guy? Is he a – should I say – LeBron James, Kevin Durant? Nah, he’s not that. But he’s still an elite player. To me he’s a second option type guy. He needs to be the second best on the team and be able to handle the pressure because I don’t think he’s able to handle the pressure that superstars are able to handle. Giannis is a superstar. He’s actually carrying Milwaukee. I think Kyrie is a great addition for Boston, but I don’t think he’s a Batman type of guy.

When you say handling the pressures of a superstar what do you mean by that?

I mean, there’s a lot that comes with it. For example, like, when he was playing with ‘Bron, ‘Bron would take a lot of heat for games that they would lose or stuff like that. At the same time you get a lot of praise, but if you’re a superstar there’s a lot that comes with it besides just taking the big shots in the big moments and stuff like that. There’s a lot that comes with it as far as your leadership skills, as far as you directing people on the court, the big where to go. And being a leader, there’s a lot that comes with being a superstar and a Batman.

From afar, what have you thought about Kyrie’s season?

It’s hard to be disappointed in Kyrie because he plays so well, man. At the end of the day, he’s an elite player. But it’s hard to be disappointed in him because Kyrie is Kyrie – he’s a top point guard in this league that can go get buckets. That’s what he do. He’s amazing to watch as far as his skill set. I can say this, every time I’ve seen him pretty much step on the court all season, to me he played with the right intentions. So you can’t be mad at him for that.

If you had been in the Celtics locker room this year, how would you have handled all the bickering they had? Would you have pulled guys aside to chat to give them advice? Would you have kicked someone’s ass? What type of leadership would you have brought?

There’s different approaches. You’ve got a team like the Celtics, they’re a young, talented team. The way the Celtics have a lot of talent, there’s different ways to go about it. Screaming and yelling is sometimes not always the correct option. So sometimes you get together and then you build chemistry and you build togetherness outside the court. So you need to start doing things as a team outside the court and it carries onto the court. So you have team dinners, guys getting to know one another. Because I think at the end of the day, if me and you are teammates and I take you to dinner and we get to know more about each other on the personal side then when we get on the court I think it carries over because you’re going to be ready to run through a brick wall for me and I’m going to be ready to run through a brick wall for you. But you can’t have hidden agendas. I said this before the season, the only thing that scared me about the Celtics was they’re too talented. I didn’t know if guys were going to settle into their roles. In the first round they showed a glimpse of that and I was like, “Oh, OK. So guys are willing to make the sacrifice and buy into their roles.” They was on the same page. Because this Milwaukee team is good, but, I mean, the Celtics are good too and I expected more out of them right now as far as in this series.

Have they seemed almost fractured to you this year?

I wouldn’t say that because one thing I do know about those guys on the team is they’re mentally tough. So just knowing that those guys are mentally tough, I don’t know if they seem fractured. But, see, like, for example, on the ‘08 team, when Paul, Ray and KG formed the only thing that was on their mind was winning the championship. So they were willing to make the sacrifices to win the championship because those guys were late into their careers. … The only thing left on their agenda was to win the championship. And so at the end of the day they were willing to make the sacrifices. The Celtics on the other hand, the team right now, you have a lot of young guys, a lot of young talent. You don’t know what they could be worried about. Jayson Tatum, he played great last year in the playoffs. He could have come back wanting to make an All-Star game. Just things like that, contract stuff. There’s a lot of things that’s hard to put aside when you’re trying to win a championship. But that was the only thing that scared me was that they’re too talented. And I didn’t know if guys were going to be able to put their pride aside and be able to accept their roles.

That ‘08 team, did you have a conversation about that? Did you have a sitdown conversation to say we need to put all that Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. aside?

Absolutely. We did that before the season. I think the best thing that happened in ‘08 was we ended up going to Rome for training camp. And it was just us. We got a chance to bond, really bond, and get to know each other. And I think the identity was established from Day 1 and what our goals were. Doc didn’t have to check us. We checked ourselves if we got outside our bodies on anything as far as basketball. Guys knew what their roles were on the team and we were willing to take the sacrifice. But it started with KG. He was the one, he took a backseat to Paul and Ray from the jump. So that set the tone for everybody else.

Did KG actually tell them he intended to do that?

Yeah. He did. He told them. He said, ‘Look, P, Ray, this is y’all show, man. I’m here if you need me to get a bucket, but I’m making the sacrifice and I’m going to take a backseat. For a guy, KG, he was the best player on that team at the time. No disrespect to Paul or Ray, but he was the guy. He was that guy. But he took a backseat and let Paul and Ray do what they needed to do. If they needed him, he’d come along. So he set the tone from the jump.

As a young guy, when you see that from a Hall of Famer, does that impact you?

You’ve gotta just go with it. It do affect you because it’s like, man, if KG could do it, I’ve gotta do it. There’s no exceptions. Period.

What’s your best memory from that team?

Man, I have so many memories. We did everything together. Um, I mean, man, bro. To be honest I can’t just think of one favorite moment. But I know we were together everywhere, man. I can’t even point out one particular moment, man. Like, in 2007-2008, that was the best year of my NBA career.

Just because you guys win?

It was both. The camaraderie. Always together on and off the court. Not only did we win, but we really enjoyed playing together. And we had fun, man. We had fun.

I’ve heard rumors of a boxing match two of your teammates had.

Who was that? … Man, it was Glen Davis and Eddie House. Sometimes it be like that, man. They had a little inside beef or something went on and we made them put on the gloves, and they got on the gloves and did what they were supposed to do. It wasn’t nothing past that. Sometimes that happens.

So you guys would just fight it out?

Yeah.

Do you remember who won the fight?

Nah, I don’t remember. We broke it up. But that’s what happens, though. It was super competitive on our team. Man, we competed in everything. We would see who could do the most pushups. We would see who could beat each other in arm wrestling. We would compete over the craziest things ever, man. We just had fun.

I saw your tweet about Max Kellerman calling Kawhi better than Kobe. Having played Kobe in two Finals series, what was your reaction to that?

I had the same reaction Stephen A. Smith and Jason Williams had. Max, like, come on, Max. Kawhi’s playing great but let’s not go overboard. Kobe – I mean, Kobe’s Kobe. Kobe’s proven to the utmost. Nah, we’re not about to do that.


Kendrick Perkins
✔
@KendrickPerkins
 Hold Up @maxkellerman you said Kawhi is Better than Kobe? Listen Kawhi is playing great basketball right now and I did say that he mimics Jordan Game but let’s not push it Max! In the words of Steven A Smith! Stay off the Weed!

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You’re retired now. How do you spend your time these days?

Right now I’m just jumping into different things, doing different media outlets, I’m doing a couple shows as far as NBA analysis and stuff like that. I’ve got some coaching things going on, but just basically with my family and kids, that’s about it though.

Because I have to ask, where do you think Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will play next year?

Man, I have no clue, man. I tried to ask KD 100 times, man, he’ll never tell me about that. Like I always say, we always talk about personal life stuff but I never really ask him about basketball. It’s going to be interesting to see, I’ll tell you that, man. It’s going to be an interesting free agency.

https://theathletic.com/968188/2019/05/08/qa-kendrick-perkins-on-kyrie-kawhi-kobe-and-watching-this-celtics-team-struggle/

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

no one was truly willing to sacrifice and in the end, egos got the best of them. it's sad too because if a lot of them never win a chip, they are going to regret this. this should have been special but too many good players, no one wanted to be a role player. can't really blame them this early in their career, they want limelight and money, but it sure sucks as a fan.