Five members of the 2008 Boston Celtics championship team— Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins— reunited on Garnett’s Area 21 segment during TNT’s Inside the NBA last night.
No strangers to what it takes to win a ring, those five and that Celtics team earned their hard-nosed reputation by never backing down from a challenge.
Which brings us to the Toronto Raptors most recent playoff exit.
The Area 21 crew wasn’t exactly shy in sharing their displeasure over the Toronto Raptors’ apparent mindset throughout their four-game sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers— particularly the public comments on the parts of the Raps’ leaders.
“Toronto’s giving [LeBron and the Cavs] props during the series,” said Perkins, citing Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan’s comments regarding LeBron James.
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After Game 3’s loss at home Lowry said that “Nobody is closing the gap” on James, while DeRozan offered $100 to anybody who knew how to slow James down. Following Game 4 when the Raptors were swept by the defending champs, without putting up much resistance throughout the series, DeRozan said what everybody was thinking: “If we had LeBron on our team, too, we would’ve won.”
While both of their statements may ring true, those Celtics five— who beat James and the Cavs in Game 7 of the second round en route to that ’08 title— took offence to what the Raptors’ stars had to say about their opponent.
Perkins in particular revealed that he would have trouble going to war with the pair if they didn’t truly believe they could win against the ‘King’.
“I’ll tell you what,” Perkins said, “my personal opinion is if I was on that team, being the role player that I am, I can’t follow [Lowry and DeRozan’s] lead.”
“I think it’s time to break Toronto up,” Garnett weighed in. “There’s a certain level of respect they’re giving [James] that you can’t give a player when you’re playing against him. I get it, he’s cold, he’s good, but…”
Do you agree with KG & co.? Were the Raptors’ stars just being realistic, or did they need to show more fight and confidence in order to truly compete with the NBA’s best? Check out the full segment here (Raptors talk begins at the 1:40 mark):
