To many basketball fans, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen’s arrivals were the primary reasons the Boston Celtics went from winning 24 games in the 2006-07 season to 66 during the 2007-08 campaign.
While there is undoubtedly a lot of truth to that — after all, do-it-all power forwards and sharpshooting guards don’t grow on trees — Kendrick Perkins and Eddie House recently revealed there was a lot more to their success than the arrival of the two Hall of Famers.
In an interview on the “Straight Game Podcast,” Perkins reminisced about how their first practice during the 2007-08 season went and how that set the tone for their championship season.
The second unit drew first blood
House didn’t mince words about how they stunned the Celtics’ starters, led by Garnett, Allen, Perkins, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo during that first practice session.
“You remember the very first practice? The second unit kicked the s—t out of the first unit, right?” he revealed. “We beat the s—t out of y’all. Me, (James) Posey, Leon (Powe)… we went out there and blew the s—t out of y’all.”
However, he also clarified that the loss the first unit suffered that day lit a fire from under them that burned brightly until the season ended. It sparked a competitive drive that gave the team the confidence and mojo to blow teams out nightly.
“We whooped y’all’s a-s that day. And then the next day, and the next day, and the next day, y’all turned y’all s—t up and really whooped us and turned us up,” he shared. “We were constantly sharpening each other.”
“That first practice, I think, kind of set the tone for how our team was. I ain’t saying that we were better than y’all — that ain’t what I’m saying,” he added. “‘Cause y’all kicked our a-s for the rest of the season. But that one practice, that first one, when y’all went out there tiptoeing… you know, y’all got smacked a little bit.”
Practices were fierce
Perkins confirmed that the reserves got them good during that first practice, which began a season-long back-and-forth amongst everyone. On a team filled with rabid dogs who’d rather chew their legs off than suffer a defeat to the opposing group, it was the only way to get better. And that’s exactly what they did.
“I’m a strong believer in iron sharpening iron. And I believe that if you’re trying to win something big and at a high level, it’s good to have competition in the locker room,” the retired center stated. “That’s a healthy thing, right? Like, you keep MFs on their toes.”
Perkins divulged that practices were so fierce that they often looked forward to those battles than the actual games. The numbers showed it too; the Celtics’ winning margin that season was more than 10 points, which meant they were dominating most of their opponents.
“Man, we used to hurry up and go win our games just to hurry up and get back in the locker room to talk s—t to each other about practice the next day — because it was going up. Real talk,” he said. “This is facts. That’s how much MFs wanted to get at each other at practice. We would hurry up, win the games we were supposed to, get in the locker room, and be like, ‘Yo, white, we on your a-s tomorrow.'”
Today, the NBA is in an era of load management rules. Teams often just go through shootarounds and walkthroughs and players rarely get to scrimmage against one another. Back in the day, this wasn’t the case.
As the 2008 Celtics showed, practice was just as important as games. In fact, some players even preferred the competitiveness of practice over games because it pushed them to be better.