Celtics react to trade

Reactions from Boston concerning Thursday’s trade in which the Thunder sent forward Jeff Green, center Nenad Krstic and the Los Angeles Clippers’ 2012 first-round pick (which the Thunder owned and is protected to No. 10) to the Celtics in exchange for center Kendrick Perkins and guard Nate Robinson:

- “He’s taking it pretty hard because he’s been here eight years. He was real emotional, crying. I feel bad for him. I told him he’s not alone. ‘We’re going together. It’s not like you’ll be by yourself.’ ” – Robinson on Perkins

- “They (Perkins’ teammates) love him. Someone said before (Thursday night’s game at Denver) that it’s not personal and I said, ‘You’re wrong, it’s very personal.’ He’s a family member and you are going to miss a family member. Just because it’s business doesn’t mean it’s not emotional.” – Boston coach Doc Rivers

- “It’s a tough day to play basketball. It’s not even about a teammate. I feel like I’ve lost a family member … your brothers for life.” – Celtics All-Star Kevin Garnett

 - “It’s a difficult time when you see one of your good friends and teammates go. That’s probably the most difficult thing about this business, seeing a friend and teammate go, but you have to understand it’s a business and things of that nature happen.” – Celtics All-Star Paul Pierce

- “It’s a part of the game. I’m eight years in, so I’m not really shocked by anything. Of course, we’re sad to see one of our brothers go, a couple of our brothers go, but they’ll be all right. You’ve just got to see them around.” – Celtics guard Delonte West

- “We need to get Shaq healthy. Shaq will be healthy, but if Shaq plays great, then this deal was obviously really, really good for us. That’s on Shaq, getting Shaq in great shape, getting him ready, getting him healthy. It’s really going to be important for us in the playoffs.” – Rivers

- “It’s tough to play the O’Neals and Perk at the same time. Shaquille O’Neal has proven to be better with our starters. We beat all of the top teams without Kendrick.” – Celtics general manager Danny Ainge

- “We want to win now. We want to win a championship right this second. I think Jeff Green is going to be able to back up Paul Pierce and help us at that spot. He’s a young, athletic guy we really like. We’re really excited about him. We think Krstic is a very, very solid player who can really shoot the ball from 15-18 feet, and he’ll be helped by the people we have around him. And, we think Shaq (O’Neal) and Jermaine (O’Neal) are going to be healthy and ready to play. So we think this makes us better.” – Ainge