{"id":1999238,"date":"2026-06-19T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1999238"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:00:37","slug":"kendrick-perkins-these-are-the-3-best-leaders-i-played-with-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1999238","title":{"rendered":"Kendrick Perkins: These are the 3 best leaders I played with in the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story is part of Peak, The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kendrick Perkins played 14 years in the NBA. He is now an NBA analyst for ESPN. These are the three best leaders he played with.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics forward<\/h2>\n

Emotionally, his energy was contagious. He showed young guys like myself, Rajon Rondo, \u201cBig Baby\u201d Glen Davis what we needed to do. He showed us how to have a routine, how to get mentally prepared and, most importantly, he showed us how to lock in and limit distractions.<\/p>\n

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And obviously we know about his damn passion. I\u2019ll put it in PG terms. His thinking was: Forget everybody. If you didn\u2019t have Celtics across your chest, you were an enemy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When you walked inside the locker room, it was quiet. There wasn\u2019t talking. He taught us on the day<\/em> of a game you needed to be locked in. It wasn\u2019t just that you needed to get locked in at the arena on game night. It actually started at shootaround.<\/p>\n

Throughout the regular season, when we would be walking through plays, he would say to the coaches: \u201cHold on real quick, y\u2019all. Stop playing around, man. Lock in, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

We knew right then what it was, so we never had that problem again.<\/p>\n

It was all about the team.<\/p>\n

In 2008, we don\u2019t win the championship that year without Kevin Garnett coming to the first day of training camp and saying: \u201cHey, Doc. Before we start practice, I want to say this: We\u2019re going to run the offense through Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. I\u2019m going to put myself behind those guys, and I\u2019m going to focus on the defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right there set the temperature and the tone for the season and for the team.<\/p>\n

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Jalen Brunson and the “underdog effect”<\/div>\n
Elise Devlin<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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