Kendrick Perkins rose to Boston Celtics lore with the “Ubuntu” title team of 2008, one of the most revered teams in NBA history in terms of unselfishness and an overall collective responsibility to the greater good. It should come as no surprise, then, that he's dismayed by watching the current Celtics play with such a relative lack of cohesion.
In an interview with The Athletic's Jay King, Perkins certainly didn't hold back from criticizing Boston, decrying his former team's apparent inability to play with “togetherness.”
“You always look at a team’s body language,” he said of the Celtics' performance in Game 4 against the Milwaukee Bucks. “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…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.
“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,” Perkins continued. “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.”
Perkins, who officially announced his retirement last month, is hardly the only one frustrated and flummoxed by the Celtics' performance. Integrating Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to a team that nearly made the Finals without them, Boston has been unable to find the spirit, both on and off the floor, that's always been a hallmark of the franchise since Brad Stevens came aboard.
We'll see if the Celtics, trailing 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, can come together to extend their season when they meet the Bucks at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night.
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