When former Boston Celtics champion center Kendrick Perkins was not part of the team’s 2024 title festivities, it was clear that some sort of rift had opened up between Perkins and his former ball club. Now working as a broadcaster for ESPN, Big Perk has made a name for himself in the NBA media with his tendency to lean into hot takes critical of his former team.
That dynamic might be the reason why we did not see Perk in a duck boat after the ’24 title, despite seeing a wide array of former and current Celtics taking part in the celebrations. And former Celtics majority owner (and current team CEO) Wyc Grousbeck shed some light on that dynamic in a recent interview with former Boston floor general and current “Club 520” podcast host Jeff Teague.
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“He wasn’t invited to our parade last year—that is true—because he had been giving people a lot of (expletive),” said Grousbeck. “And so I had family members of players saying, ‘If that guy’s in the parade, we’re not in the parade.’”
Given the nature of this conflict of interests stemming from Perkins’ decisions on how he covered the team, the decision did not seem to be too much of a hard one for the Celtics Governor. “I said, ‘Well, that’s… you know… okay, you win,’” he recalled.
That does not mean that Grousbeck harbors any ill feelings towards his former center. In fact, it seems to be the opposite — in the same interview, he suggested he regretted allowing Perk to have been dealt away from Boston in the first place. That might be a purely basketball-related opinion, but also not one you need to make given all of the rest.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Wyc on why Perkins was not invited to Celtics title festivities