Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that Kendrick Perkins is fast becoming a star NBA analyst.
Celtics fans figured him out early during his seven-plus seasons as the glue-guy power forward in a lineup filled with megastars – Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo – and mega-ego.
His disarming southern drawl always belied his I’ll-do-the-dirty-work-without-remorse attitude and ever-present in-game scowl. But the off-the-court “Perk’’ – no one who played with him called him Kendrick — was charismatic, engaging and blunt, someone who knew the game well and loved talking about it.
His reputation during his 14-year career was one of such universal respect that Sports Illustrated’s Jake Fischer collected a series of anecdotes about him in 2017 that ran under the headline: Kendrick Perkins: The NBA’s Best Teammate.