"Concerns about his work ethic"

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

I've only seen Perkins play once, and that was the McDonalds All-American
game.
Big men rarely stand out in that kind of every man for himself type setting,
so it doesn't mean much that  Kendrick didn't either.
I've got an e-mail into a friend who lives in Dallas and is very active in
AAU there to try to get the low down and I'll pass on whatever she (yes,
she...and she's a coach) has to say.  In the meantime this article contradicts
some
of the things the Boston media have been writing.

<A
HREF="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/sports/basketball/mavs/s
tories/062703dnsponbadraftside.4793e.html">
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/sports/basketball/mavs/stories
/062703dnsponbadraftside.4793e.html</A>

06/27/2003

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
and RICHARD DURRETT / Dallas Web Staff

There was a time when Beaumont Ozen center Kendrick Perkins heard his name
mentioned in the same sentence with LeBron James.

They were the two best 17-year-old basketball players on the planet.

If James was the next Magic Johnson, Perkins was the next Moses Malone,
earning his living on the low block, scoring big and rebounding everything in
sight.

That was only a year ago. But a lot has changed in one year. Whereas James
spent his draft night in New York garnering all the attention (in his
all-white
suit) as the top overall pick in the NBA draft, Perkins was watching on a big
screen television at Community Bank in downtown Beaumont with about 55
friends, family, teammates and media.

Perkins didn't hear his name announced until the end of the first round ?
nearly 2 = hours after James shook commissioner David Stern's hand. Perkins
was
selected by Memphis with the 27th pick, but the Grizzlies traded his rights to
Boston as part of a four-player deal.

So what happened in one season? How did Perkins lead his high school team to
a 33-1 record, average 27.5 points, 16.4 rebounds and 7.8 blocked shots, yet
watch his stock plummet like it was an Enron parent company?

The word circulating around the league is that Perkins plays smaller than his
6-10, 285-pound frame. He is considered slow on the court and doesn't have an
impressive vertical leap. And there are concerns about his work ethic.

"If his passport were a different color, he would be a guy you'd keep
overseas for a couple years and you'd have the luxury of holding onto his
rights and
not having to make a decision during training camp," Mavericks president of
basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. "He's at least two years away."

The Celtics certainly hope and expect Perkins to be ready sooner than that.
He does have the skills to succeed in the league and his size gives him a
chance to be a force inside. And, according to Beaumont Ozen coach Andre
Boutte,
Perkins spent a bunch of time in the weight room and lost 30 pounds in the
last
month.

"I worked hard," said Perkins, who is scheduled to fly to Boston on Friday.
"Coach always reminded me, 'If you work hard, it pays off.' "

Boutte said he thought Perkins would go to Boston with the 20th overall
selection.

"When that didn't happen, we were still confident we were going in the first
round," Boutte said.

It just wasn't as high as they thought this time a year ago.