Kendrick Perkins reflects on ’08 C’s championship season. Featured on NBC Sports Boston
Sixteen years ago, the Boston Celtics defeated their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the NBA Finals, ending a 22-year drought and bringing Boston its 17th championship. It was a season of dominance on the court, but it was also memorable off it.
Several members of the 2008 Celtics team joined the latest episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast to reminisce about the good old days, with Eddie House, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Poe, Tony Allen and James Posey sharing their memories of the championship campaign.
Perkins responded first, and his answer did not disappoint.
🔊 Celtics Talk: A special 2008 Celtics reunion and the keys to a Celtics vs. Mavericks NBA Finals | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
“Airplane trips are awesome,” Perkins said. “I was telling somebody the other day, the plane trip was like a club. There were dice games going on, a couple of bouley tables, KG (Kevin Garnett) had a boombox, and we were listening to Rick Ross and having a blast. (Head coach) Doc (Rivers) was having some kind of emotional moment, but he really couldn’t control it….
“Remember when we went on long-distance trips, the season-ticket holders who used to be able to fly? I remember having to have meetings with them and say, ‘Listen, this plane trip is going to be like nothing you’ve ever experienced. You’re going to hear certain words, don’t worry about it. You’re going to see certain things, but it just happens. There’s nothing we can do about it.’ So the people who flew with us had to adapt. It wasn’t like, ‘Shut up,’ or anything like that. If you were trying to sleep or take a nap, you couldn’t do that on our plane, so you had to get on a commercial plane. It was a great ride. I was pissed when it was a 45-minute flight, I’m telling you that.”
Perkins believes that wild plane trip was key to C forming the “Ubuntu” team in 2008.
“Of all the things that were going on with us, I thought that was the biggest part of the camaraderie,” he added. “When somebody was acting weird, we knew it. When somebody was emotional, whether it was something that happened in practice, something that happened in the film room, or during a game, you could tell when we were on an airplane that somebody was having some kind of emotion. So, when we were on an airplane, that really told the truth of every situation that had to do with what was going on with us during the 2008 season.”
The Celtics will seek their 18th championship when they face the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals, with Game 1 set for Thursday night at TD Garden.
Also featured in this episode:
-
Other favorite moments from the 2008 season as chosen by panel members.
-
How Eddie recruited Posey to the Celtics.
-
How should the Garden crowd react to Kyrie Irving?
-
How will this final series affect the stars’ legacies?
