Princeton High graduate returns for summer league
By: Bob Nuse
Tom Perkins will be the first to tell you he’s never been a star on the basketball court.
Throughout his career at Princeton High and Denison University, Perkins has been the kind of player who doesn’t put up big numbers, but finds a way to help his team win.
Because of his style of player, Perkins was dubbed by a teammate with the nickname AK-47, after Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko.
"I’ll never get a lot of points or a lot of rebounds or a lot of steals, but I’ll get a little bit of everything, which is what Kirilenko does," said Perkins, who is playing this summer with the Coldwell Banker entry in the Princeton Recreation Summer Men’s Basketball League.
Perkins had a typical AK-47 game on Monday night, scoring seven points, grabbing a few rebounds and coming up with a couple of loose balls to help Coldwell Banker to a 52-47 win over Koehler & Company.
Perkins was an occasional starter at Princeton High before heading to Denison, where he has spent most of his career as a bench player. But as he prepares for his senior year of college, Perkins has hopes of playing a bigger role.
"I walked on and I am looking to get some major minutes this year," he said. "I’ve always been a role player. I was a soccer player until I started to play basketball in high school. So it took a while to learn the game. I still play soccer in the spring for Dennison, but I’ve been focused on basketball.
"For a few years at Denison I didn’t play at all. I was just happy to be on the team and hang out with the guys. Basketball is more than just a game. It teaches you life skills. It teaches you discipline and how to work in a team environment. And that translates into the professional world. It teaches you, even when the coach is criticizing you all the time because I play for a tough coach, it teaches you perseverance."
This summer, Perkins is part of team that finds itself near the top of the Princeton league standings with a 4-2 record. In the win on Monday, Chris Edwards scored 18 points and Jeff Harris added 13. It was the kind of balanced scoring effort Coldwell Banker usually has in its games.
"I’m excited about us," said Perkins, who is working this summer for the New York Red Bulls soccer team and has hopes of a career in sports marketing. "Every single guy on the team contributes, which is what you need. And everybody has confidence because we help each other out. We’ve had so many different players start, which is the indication of a good team.
"We have a very high basketball IQ on our team. Some of it comes from having a guy like Chris Petrie on our team, who plays for Princeton University. We don’t have all the right players because only have a few guards and a lot of big men, but we all play smart. That’s why we’re successful so far, even though it’s still early in the season."
Perkins is happy to be contributing to that success, even if he doesn’t put up the gaudy numbers of some of the stars on the team.