"Like most of us, Kendrick Perkins never saw it coming.

Three weeks ago, he was a Boston Celtic, going through the morning shootaround at the Pepsi Center in Denver. There was a game that night against the Nuggets, although the injured Perkins was going to be a spectator, having injured his knee two nights earlier at Golden State.

Perkins, of course, never made it back to the Pepsi Center for the game that night. After the shootaround, his agent, Bob Myers, called and told him of the possibility of a deal. Perkins had no clue.

"I was pretty surprised,'' Perkins told ESPNBoston.com via telephone. "I had no idea. I talked to Doc [Rivers] and he said he wasn't pushing it, that he was trying to stop it."

Rivers said he did stop it. That was Perkins Deal No. 1, according to the coach.

"At the time I talked to him, it was a different deal and I did put a stop to that one. But I also told him that something might still happen,'' Rivers said.

Soon, Perkins Deal No. 2 came along and Rivers then had to say goodbye to a player he had, he said, come to regard as a son."