Celtvestigation: Did Kendrick Perkins get denied a seat at Celtics’ Banner Night?

It’s not very often that a team gets to raise a championship banner. Though it happens more often for the Boston Celtics than the rest of the NBA, the moment is always special. The last time that Boston did so, Kendrick Perkins was not only a part of the celebration, but he was a member of the team.

This time around, neither of those things were true, even though he reportedly would’ve liked to have been there with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett, but the organization apparently wasn’t interested in having him present, according to The Sun, US.

“He was asking everyone to get a spot at TD Garden, to be there for this moment of history, and to try to soften up the relationship that is broken,” one source who works in the organization told Steve Brenner and David Scott.

According to Perkins, this isn’t true.

“This is completely False,” he said to me on Twitter/X. “I never had plans on attending Banner night and I’ve never reached out to anyone in the Celtics organization about attending banner night.”

Whether or not Perk reached out with interest in joining the celebration is a mystery.

What we do know, is that if he did in fact inquire, it would make sense if he was denied, considering some of the things he’s said about the team in recent years. The former Celtics center turned ESPN talking head has consistently thrown shade at the team’s stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and even called head coach Joe Mazzulla a “bird brain” last season.

Earlier this year, his former Celtics teammate, NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine, said that there was a rift between Big Perk and the Cs, during his Sirius XM radio show.

Scal’s claim lines up pretty well with what The Sun reported earlier this week. Brenner and Scott cited a current player, who isn’t Perk’s biggest fan.

“The hatchet won’t be buried anytime soon, and the respect for him is below zero since those comments and most of us don’t even want to hear about him as he said things that were not justified and that were bad, and felt like throwing s*** at our faces, disrespecting our work and the whole organization,” one player of the current roster explained to The U.S. Sun.

Listen, it’s part of his job to try and be unbiased and have fair criticisms about teams across the NBA. There’s a difference between that and becoming notorious for trying to tear down just about everyone who is a part of the current Celtics organization.

If you want to talk about grasping at straws, look no further than the below clip.

That’s just one example of many where Perkins did all he could to dismiss the achievements of last season’s championship team.

We’ve reached a point now where I’m not even sure why Perk wants to be involved with the Celtics. Yes, he was a part of a championship team here and was beloved during his playing days, but he would undoubtedly be booed if he was put up on TD Garden’s big screen.

Does he really want that? Does he not understand how people within the Celtics community feel about him?

With his denial of The Sun’s report, we can’t be certain. But, if he is truly upset about being left out, it would be a real head-scratcher.

I just picture his confusion about his omission from the celebration going a lot like this “I Think You Should Leave” skit.