Sam Perkins

Sam Perkins

Sam Perkins in 2012
Personal information
Born	June 14, 1961 Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	235 lb (107 kg)
Career information
High school	Shaker (Latham, New York)
College	North Carolina (1980–1984)
NBA draft	1984 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4th overall
Selected by the Dallas Mavericks
Playing career	1984–2001
Position	Power forward / Center
Number	41, 44, 14
Career history
1984–1990	Dallas Mavericks
1990–1993	Los Angeles Lakers
1993–1998	Seattle SuperSonics
1998–2001	Indiana Pacers
Career highlights and awards
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1985) USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (1984) NCAA champion (1982) 2× Consensus first-team All-American (1983, 1984) Consensus second-team All-American (1982) 3× First-team All-ACC (1982–1984)
Career NBA statistics
Points	15,324 (11.9 ppg)
Rebounds	7,666 (6.0 rpg)
Blocks	933 (0.7 bpg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals Men's basketball Representing  United States Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Team competition Pan American Games 1983 Caracas Team competition FIBA U19 World Championship 1979 Salvador Team competition

Samuel "Sam" Perkins (born June 14, 1961) is an American retired professional basketball player. He won a gold medal with the US national team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Known by the nicknames "Sleepy Sam" and "Big Smooth", he attended Samuel J. Tilden High School, Shaker High School and the University of North Carolina, where he was a teammate of future Hall of Famers James Worthy and Michael Jordan.^[1] A member of the 1982 NCAA Tournament championship winning Tar Heel squad, he was selected with the fourth pick of the 1984 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1984 to 2001.

In 2008, Perkins was named vice president of player relations for the Indiana Pacers, for whom he played from 1999–2001.^[2]

In September 2008, Perkins was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame along with NBA stars Kenny Anderson and Rod Strickland, coach Pete Gillen and pioneers Lou Bender and Eddie Younger.^[3]

In October 2011, Perkins also traveled to South Sudan as a SportsUnited Sports Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. In this function, he worked with Dikembe Mutombo to lead a series of basketball clinics and team building exercises with 50 youth and 36 coaches. This helped contribute to the State Department's mission to remove barriers and create a world in which individuals with disabilities enjoy dignity and full inclusion in society.^[4]

Career highlights

• Selected as the large-school player of the year in high school by the New York State Sportswriters Association in 1980.
• Member of the 1982 NCAA Champion North Carolina Tar Heels.
• Named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team as one of the fifty greatest players in Atlantic Coast Conference history
• Co-captain of the gold-medal winning 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team.
• Named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1984–85.
• Appeared in 164 career playoff games, averaging 11.3 ppg and 5.7 rpg.
• Recorded the first 30-20 game in Mavericks history, with 31 points and a career-high 20 rebounds, against the Houston Rockets on December 12, 1985. (Dirk Nowitzki had 33 points and 23 rebounds on February 21, 2002.)
• Scored a career-high 45 points, for the Mavericks, against the Golden State Warriors on April 12, 1990.
• Appeared against the Chicago Bulls in the 1991 NBA Finals with the L.A. Lakers and again in 1996 with the Seattle SuperSonics. He also appeared with the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 NBA Finals against the L.A. Lakers.
• Tied an NBA record by hitting 8 three-pointers without a miss with the Seattle SuperSonics against the Toronto Raptors on January 15, 1997.
• Posted a 1997–98 season-high 21 points, on perfect shooting (5-5 FG, 4-4 3FG, 7-7 FT), and 3 steals against the L.A. Clippers on December 14, 1997.
• Named as a member of the 35 Greatest Boys McDonald's All Americans team.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1984–85	Dallas	82	42	28.3	.471	.250	.820	7.4	1.6	.8	.8	11.0
1985–86	Dallas	80	79	32.8	.503	.333	.814	8.6	1.9	.9	1.2	15.4
1986–87	Dallas	80	80	33.6	.482	.352	.828	7.7	1.8	1.4	1.0	14.8
1987–88	Dallas	75	75	33.3	.450	.167	.822	8.0	1.6	1.0	.7	14.2
1988–89	Dallas	78	77	36.7	.464	.184	.833	8.8	1.6	1.0	1.2	15.0
1989–90	Dallas	76	70	35.1	.493	.214	.778	7.5	2.3	1.2	.8	15.9
1990–91	L.A. Lakers	76	66	34.3	.495	.281	.821	7.4	1.5	.9	1.1	13.5
1991–92	L.A. Lakers	63	63	37.0	.450	.217	.817	8.8	2.2	1.0	1.0	16.5
1992–93	L.A. Lakers	49	49	32.4	.459	.172	.829	7.7	2.6	.8	1.0	13.7
1992–93	Seattle	30	13	25.4	.511	.452	.795	4.8	.9	.7	1.0	12.1
1993–94	Seattle	81	41	26.8	.438	.367	.801	4.5	1.4	.8	4	12.3
1994–95	Seattle	82	37	28.7	.466	.397	.799	4.9	1.6	.9	.5	12.7
1995–96	Seattle	82	20	26.5	.408	.355	.793	4.5	1.5	1.0	.6	11.8
1996–97	Seattle	81	4	24.4	.439	.395	.817	3.7	1.3	.9	.6	11.0
1997–98	Seattle	81	0	20.7	.416	.392	.789	3.1	1.4	.8	.4	7.2
1998–99	Indiana	48	0	16.4	.400	.389	.717	2.9	.5	.3	.3	5.0
1999–2000	Indiana	81	0	20.0	.417	.408	.825	3.6	.8	.4	.4	6.6
2000–01	Indiana	64	41	15.6	.381	.345	.842	2.6	.6	.5	.3	3.8
Career		1,286	757	28.5	.459	.362	.811	6.0	1.5	.9	.7	11.9

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1985	Dallas	4	4	42.3	.490	.250	.765	12.8	2.8	.5	.3	18.8
1986	Dallas	10	10	34.7	.429	.250	.767	8.3	2.4	.9	1.4	14.9
1987	Dallas	4	4	17.0	.500	.000	.696	8.5	1.3	1.0	.3	17.0
1988	Dallas	17	17	33.6	.451	.143	.803	6.6	1.8	1.5	1.0	13.5
1990	Dallas	3	3	39.3	.444	.000	.765	7.3	2.7	1.0	.7	15.0
1991	L.A. Lakers	19	19	39.6	.548	.367	.761	8.3	1.7	.8	1.4	17.7
1993	Seattle	19	17	32.9	.436	.380	.873	7.0	1.9	1.0	1.3	14.4
1994	Seattle	5	0	28.2	.333	.429	.882	7.2	.8	.8	.4	9.8
1995	Seattle	4	1	35.3	.438	.455	1.000	7.8	3.3	.8	1.3	13.5
1996	Seattle	21	1	31.1	.459	.368	.754	4.3	1.7	.7	.3	12.3
1997	Seattle	12	6	28.3	.337	.311	.862	4.4	1.3	1.0	1.0	8.4
1998	Seattle	10	1	21.0	.381	.417	.600	3.2	1.4	.3	.5	5.4
1999	Indiana	13	0	11.2	.514	.458	.667	1.9	.5	.0	.2	4.1
2000	Indiana	23	0	18.1	.324	.348	.905	3.2	.4	.2	.3	4.8
2001	Indiana	3	0	6.3	.250	.250	–	1.3	.0	.0	.0	1.7
Career		167	83	28.7	.444	.363	.785	5.6	1.5	.7	.8	11.1

See also

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds
• List of National Basketball Association career games played leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career playoff 3-point scoring leaders

References

1. Easy Does It -- Sam Perkins: Selfless, Sacrificial Sonic
2. PACERS: Perkins named V.P. of Player Relations
3. Mallozzi, Vincent M. "City’s Basketball Hall Welcomes 98-Year-Old Inductee", The New York Times, September 17, 2008. Accessed September 14, 2009.
4. "Sam Perkins and Dikembe Mutombo Travel to South Sudan | Exchange Programs". exchanges.state.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-01.

External links

• nba.com historical playerfile
• Sam Perkins at Basketball-Reference.com
• Sam Perkins on NBA.com