After last year’s game seven loss to the Lakers, Doc Rivers did not wait until his team’s sweat and tears had dried until he reminded everyone that the Celtics’ starting five of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins had not lost a seven game series.
In 2008, they won the championship. In 2009, they fell to Orlando in the conference semi-finals while Garnett was sidelined with a knee injury. Last season, Kendrick Perkins went down with a knee injury that kept him from playing in the seventh and final game against the Lakers.
I took Rivers’ postgame comments as meaning one of two things: If Perkins had played we would have beaten the Lakers in game seven. Or, the Lakers’ championship is somehow blemished because the Celtics were not at full strength. How people interpret Rivers’ remarks probably depends on which team you were rooting for in last year’s finals.
Last Thursday, the Celtics shocked members of their own team along with the rest of the basketball world by trading Kendrick Perkins. The Celtics dealt Perkins along with Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic. While the move is certainly questionable, I am sure an organization as savvy and prestigious as the Celtics had their reasons. However, isn’t it strange that Doc Rivers would go along with trading the player whose injury kept the team from winning last season’s championship?
If he thought they would have beaten Los Angeles last season had Perkins been healthy, Rivers must be praying they don’t play the Lakers again this spring now that Perkins is gone. Unless of course he is the only person who believes that Krstic is an upgrade over Perkins. Maybe the organization sent Perkins to a Western Conference team as part of a special ops mission to eliminate the Lakers early so they won’t have to potentially face the them again in the finals.
On any note, if Perkins was as valuable as Rivers let on after last year’s loss, the move is even more questionable than originally thought. On the other hand, maybe watching the Lakers celebrate winning the championship gave coach Rivers a case of sour grapes, and he didn’t no what else to say on the podium after the defeat. It seemed juvenile to me at the time for Rivers to mention the Celtics’ starting five to still be undefeated. Now, seeing that Perkins was obviously a disposable piece to the team, Rivers’ comments seem that much more childish.
Joshua Sexton is a lifelong basketball fanatic, who watches as many games as possible. In addition, He has played and coached the game at the high school level. He has recently started writing about the game of basketball.
