The Boston Celtics were one of the very best teams in the NBA from 2007-08 to 2009-10, but there was some tension behind the scenes. We have heard about the likes of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo not getting along, and Kendrick Perkins revealed on the Road Trippin’ podcast that altercations were commonplace for the Celtics.
“Listen, through that window of 2007 to 2010, you have to realize it was so many f***ing altercations,” Perkins said. “Hands, furniture moving, Budweiser bottles getting bust on people head. Us having to hold Doc [Rivers] and [Rajon] Rondo back.
“Ray [Allen] and Rondo getting on the gloves cause they didn’t like each other,” Perkins stated. “And we just had them box it out in the weight room. like literally box it out. TA, Tony Allen, and Big Baby [Glen Davis] full-out altercation fight on the plane.
“Eddie House and Big Baby tore up my hotel locker room, I mean my hotel room in San Antonio while we was playing Booray,” Perkins continued. “Paul [Pierce] and TA after we hit one of the spots, they get into an altercation. We fought like a motherf***er, but we dapped it up afterwards.
“It was like alright, we move on type s***,” Perkins added. “… We had developed so much of a bond that it didn’t even matter. If you had something to get off your chest? S***, it was what it was.”
Those Celtics were able to set their issues aside and dominate when they got out on the court. They won the NBA title in 2008 by beating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the Finals, but then lost the rematch in seven in 2010.
The Celtics signed former Laker Shaquille O’Neal in that offseason in a bid to return to the top. It didn’t happen, and O’Neal ended up angering Perkins in one instance in the locker room.
Perkins revealed that Delonte West had once hit Von Wafer, who was icing his feet in a mop bucket, after losing to him in practice. Wafer didn’t want a fight, but O’Neal started to instigate him.
“This is one of the few times that I get pissed off at Shaq,” Perkins said. “Because this is bullying at this point. You know when somebody want to fight, and you know when somebody don’t want to fight. Von had no intentions on fighting or doing none of that.
“That man just wanted to compete,” Perkins added. “Go home. Let the chips fall where they may. Shaq in there, ‘Oh s***, oh s***. Take it to the bathroom, take it in the shower. He got to get his lick back.’ I’m like, ‘Man, sit your big a** down, man. Instigating that s***.'”
The situation didn’t escalate, and both men appeared to have put the incident behind them not too long after. While Wafer and West didn’t end up having a long-standing beef, two other players on that Celtics team did.
Perkins, who was on the Celtics from 2003 to 2011, brought up Allen and Rondo having a boxing match, and the latter has admitted that they fought. These two aren’t on good terms even today, which is a shame.
As for Perkins, he appears to have rubbed some members of the title-winning 2024 Celtics the wrong way. He wasn’t invited to the parade, and it was later revealed that some family members of players didn’t want him there.
Perkins has burned many bridges in his media career, but he isn’t going to change his ways.
