It has been a drawn-out week: our pollies have spluttered through the first week of an increasingly lacklustre election campaign; a week where Danny Green has once again highlighted the inept and farcical administration and ultimate irrelevance of boxing in this country; and a week where Jason Akermanis collected a few more anecdotes for his upcoming autobiography.
Amongst these so-so stories one yarn stood out like a Tour De France participant taking time out for a ‘nature break’ – the attempt of New Zealand basketball to entice 7ft Boston Celtics centre Kendrick Perkins to tread the pine and pound the boards for the Tall Blacks.
The heritage link – according to The Waikato Times is Perkins’ estranged father who resides in Christchurch and played in the NZ basketball league in the 80s.
Kiwi, a good friend of Litres of Ink and proud New Zealander has fond memories of Kenny Perkins tearing up the NZBL.
This Perkins thing won’t happen will it? How crazy would it be if he did!
I remember watching Old Kenny Perkins back in the 80's and 90's he was gold, he was a superstar back then. Did not know the connection.
The yarn also caught the eye of Zach Lowe of the Celtics Hub blog.
This will never happen, but if it did, it might end up being the most ridiculous player/country match I can think of off the top of my head.
Becky Hammon got a lot of flack for her decision to become a Russian citizen in order to play for Russia in the ’08 Olympics, but at least she had some connection to Russia, having played there in off-seasons before.
Whether or not you think the Tall Blacks attempts to link Perkins to NZ are a stretch, a sign of desperation or indeed a genius ploy, the story garnered NZ basketball some international attention and has been a refreshing distraction from a week that has produced few, if any, engaging narratives.
If you think it’s worthy and can spare the ink please email your thoughts, opinions to litresofink@gmail.com
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