three best – Kendrick Perkins, reflecting on 14 years in the NBA, picks out three leaders he says shaped how teams locked in mentally: Kevin Garnett’s relentless focus, Nick Collison’s steady accountability, and LeBron James’s routine-driven example.
The locker room wasn’t loud—just quiet, like it was waiting.
Kendrick Perkins remembers what that silence felt like when Kevin Garnett was around. Perkins. who played 14 years in the NBA and is now an NBA analyst. says Garnett brought an energy that was impossible to ignore. Young players like Perkins himself. Rajon Rondo and “Big Baby” Glen Davis were shown what they needed to do: build a routine. get mentally prepared. and “lock in and limit distractions.”.
Garnett’s intensity wasn’t subtle. Perkins describes it in blunt terms: his thinking was “Forget everybody. If you didn’t have Celtics across your chest, you were an enemy.” The result, Perkins says, was a team that started games already aligned.
On days of a game. Perkins says Garnett didn’t treat focus as something you switched on only at the arena. It began at shootaround. Even during the regular season. when the Celtics were walking through plays. Perkins says Garnett would stop the rhythm—interrupt coaches and demand attention—saying: “Hold on real quick. y’all. Stop playing around, man. Lock in, man.”.
Perkins says they understood what that meant, and the message stuck. “We knew right then what it was, so we never had that problem again.” He says it was always about the team.
That leadership showed up, he says, as early as 2008. Perkins recalls how Garnett. when the Celtics started training camp. came in and told “Doc” that before practice they would run the offense through Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Perkins says Garnett added that he would put himself behind those guys and focus on defense.
“Right there set the temperature and the tone for the season and for the team,” Perkins said.
Perkins then shifts to a different kind of leader: Nick Collison of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
When Perkins says Collison was the best teammate he ever had. he ties it to what he calls “losing yourself in the team.” Collison. Perkins says. never switched up. Perkins explains that plenty of players change during a season—especially when a team is doing well but an individual isn’t. He says that’s when attitudes can flare, even toward teammates, but Collison never did.
Whether Collison played 20 minutes or didn’t play at all, Perkins says, he stayed the same: “Always positive. Always hardworking. Always looking out for the betterment of the team.”
And when Collison held someone accountable, Perkins says it wasn’t delivered through aggression. The message, Perkins remembers, sounded like: “Hey, man, we need you, but you’ve got to do better here. I’ve got your back 1,000 percent.”
Perkins recalls the kind of back-and-forth that followed. “My bad, Nick, I’ve got you. I apologize.” Then Collison would respond: “No, no, no. No need to be sorry. We’re in this together.”
Perkins says Collison’s steadiness turned into action too—something he learned after his own move to Oklahoma City. He says that after being traded to Oklahoma City in 2011, Perkins and Collison matched up with the Lakers in the playoffs in 2012.
Perkins remembers game five in particular. He says his points weren’t there, but he still produced—he believes he had 13 or 14 rebounds. After the game, Perkins says Collison told him: “You won that damn game for us. Those rebounds didn’t go unnoticed. You played your f—ing ass off, boy. Proud of you.”.
Perkins says he didn’t even realize what the praise would mean until later in the moment. He describes how it landed with real weight: “I was somewhat the leader of that squad with Nick. but right then he didn’t even know what that did for me.” Perkins says he just thought: “Dang. Nick just gave me props. That felt good coming from Nick.”.
The third leader Perkins names is LeBron James, whom he says he witnessed in Cleveland toward the end of his career—watching “greatness at the next level.”
Perkins says LeBron didn’t rely on constant talk. In film room time, he could be direct, but otherwise, Perkins says LeBron barely talked at all. “LeBron led by his actions.”
Perkins describes LeBron’s day as a kind of controlled schedule. He says he watched LeBron train at his house before practice. be one of the first people at practice. train again. and get shots up before practice with teammates. Perkins says LeBron stayed involved with the film session. then iced up after practice. went to shoot a commercial. and later called Perkins over to watch a game at his house.
Perkins points to details that stuck with him—like the amount of treatment LeBron received, and the idea that it happened even at dinner. Perkins says he watched LeBron get treatment at the dinner table of a five-star restaurant, and it made him understand why LeBron felt different.
“You could never break his routine,” Perkins says. “His day was already planned; his week was planned.”
Perkins also says LeBron’s preparation changed what others did around him. He says Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving started to follow suit. When Love first arrived in Cleveland, Perkins says he was “a little chubby,” then got in shape and learned about his body after being around LeBron.
The pressure of leadership came into sharp focus in 2018, when Perkins says Cleveland tied the series against Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals and needed to go into Boston and win Game 7.
Perkins recalls that LeBron gave a message he believes was never repeated in a softer way: “Listen, if you don’t believe and you’re not with us, don’t get your ass on this f—ing plane.”
Perkins says the team usually played a card game on the plane—him, LeBron and J.R. Smith. But on this trip, he says LeBron didn’t play. He sat in silence with his headphones on, and Perkins calls that silence leadership in itself—because it set the tone.
Perkins says leadership wasn’t just what these men said. It was what they demanded, what they modeled, and what they refused to compromise.
— As told to Jayson Jenks
Kendrick Perkins Kevin Garnett Nick Collison LeBron James Boston Celtics Oklahoma City Thunder Cleveland Cavaliers NBA leadership locker room routine playoffs