Kendrick Perkins: The Championship Celtics Hated Each Other

The Boston Celtics were Kendrick Perkins’s first NBA team, and in his seven years with them, they ended a two-decade championship drought. In the 2007-08 season, the Celtics beat the L.A. Lakers in six games to win the franchise’s first title since 1985/86. And as the starting centre on that team, Perk saw it all first hand. Now, he is telling the stories.

Now a pundit, Perkins combines his work at ESPN with a podcast called Road Trippin’. Hosted by himself, former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, and Lakers broadcaster Allie Clifton, the most recent episode ostensibly focused on this year’s Cavaliers, and what they could learn from previous championship teams if they are to become one themselves.

With Perk in the fold, however, the conversation quickly pivoted back to the Celtics. And when it did, Perkins told the story of how, although a championship team must come together, that does not mean everything must always be harmonious.

Celtics Would Go At Each Other In Practice

Specifically, Perkins spoke of a hitherto-unspoken internal rivalry between Kevin Garnett and James Posey. The forward duo played near-enough the same position, but came from opposing situations. Posey was a defensive specialist acquired by the Celtics to frustrate opponents, who brought some championship experience with him after. Garnett, meanwhile, had won nothing in a decade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Infamously.

If there was a chip on Garnett’s shoulder, it was to be expected. But according to Perkins, Posey made it his mission to play on that insecurity.

Both were known as fierce competitors, which is why the Celtics acquired them. Neither backed down. And when unstoppable forces meet immovable objects, intense internal competitions ensue.

In Perkins’s words, practices became battlegrounds. Whereas in games Garnett and Posey would work towards a common goal, in practice, they sought only to conquer each other.

But you have levels of not liking each other—because . Like KG… quiet as kept—he’ll tell the story now—but James Posey was the leader of our team. KG, at times, hated this [expletive]. Guess why he hated Posey? One—because Po guarded him in practices. Our practices—our white vs. green practices—we looked forward to going harder at each other in practice than in games.

– Kendrick Perkins

Jealousy Drove The Celtics

Beyond just the hard practices, though, Posey would also deliberately needle Garnett, using the one tool he had at his disposal that Garnett did not – his championship ring. According to Perk, Posey – knowing it would rile his jealous teammate – would make sure Garnett saw it on his person.

And the one thing Po used to do? Every ride—on the bus, on the plane—he had on a suit… And guess what else he had? He had his championship ring from Miami. He used to sit there—KG sat in the last seat—Pose would sit across from him and put that ring on his thigh, with it just popping out. And KG would be like, “He’s doing this on purpose.”

– Kendrick Perkins

As Perkins himself further said, players that are around each other so much over the course of a long season are going to have “attitude”. If, however, said attitude can be channeled into competitive spirit when it matters, and a common goal, a potentially bad thing becomes an imperative one. After all, basketball history knows how a little internal competition can raise everyone’s standards.

If It Was Done To Inspire, It Worked

When America’s “Dream Team” entered the 1992 Olympic Games, sending NBA professionals for the first time, they were so much better than their opponents that games were uncompetitive formalities. Famously, though, the practices became the fields of conflict.

Putting the world’s best in the same gym for the first time, with both the opportunity and the license to establish who were the alpha dogs, meant a level of competition, intensity and passion that the Olympics just could not compete with. In all likelihood, the Dream Team would have won the Olympics on autopilot. But they were so tuned up from the intense internal competition that even half-autopilot proved to be enough.

Similarly, if the Celtics used this rivalry – and Posey’s needle – to better themselves and stave off any complacency, the result tells the story. Clearly, it too worked.

Posey was only with the Celtics for this one season, yet in that time, he did his job. The Celtics won the 16th title in franchise history after two seasons in the lottery, buoyed not only by the great infusions of talent in the 2007 offseason but also by the renewed spirit.

During that title season, Posey and Garnett’s Celtics famously adopted the mantra, “ubuntu”, a term from the Bantu language meaning “I am because we are.” That is to say, no one individual’s goals or achievements should rank above that of the collective, and that all will work together. They did that, but it also seems they let interpersonal relationships fuel the collective’s fire.

As Garnett famously said during the title celebrations, anything is possible. Included in that, apparently, is winning in tandem with teammates you hate.

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