For Perkins, A Time To Reflect -- Supersonic's Thoughts Remain With Family, As Heartaches Continue

There's been plenty of discussion these days about Sam Perkins' rebounding, his shooting, and his value to the SuperSonics. Perkins hears the talk, and he'd really like to give more than a darn about the issues others have raised. But most of the time he just can't.

Often, Perkins will be on a basketball court and have it dawn on him that his mind is elsewhere.

On more important things.

And yes, even in a business where everyone is compensated as handsomely as they are in professional basketball, life is allowed to intrude.

This is one of those times for Perkins, who is mourning the death of his sister and preparing for that of his grandmother.

"It's hard to even be here," Perkins said after the Sonics' third workout of training camp yesterday. "I think about them all the time."

Perkins' older sister, Linda, died of complications from AIDS about three weeks ago, while Perkins was on a basketball tour of South America. He said he wanted to see her one last time but never got the chance.

Linda tested positive for HIV in 1984. That made it a particularly bittersweet time for her only brother, who was graduating from North Carolina and on his way to becoming the fourth pick in the NBA draft.

An 11th-year NBA veteran, Perkins spent the three weeks before camp back in Brooklyn, N.Y., settling his sister's affairs. Left behind were three children - ages 15, 19 and 21 - all of whom watched their mother take her last breath. And all of whom suddenly became the emotional responsibility of Perkins, the only male in a family that now includes four women - two sisters, a mother and a grandmother.

The grandmother, Martha, has been suffering from an enlarged heart and, in consecutive years, had one leg amputated, then the other, because of the condition.

It will be an especially difficult loss. As close as Perkins was to his sister, it was Martha Perkins who essentially raised him. The matriarch and a stern Jehovah's Witness, she'd steered and protected the broken family on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area.

"I haven't even gotten over my sister," Perkins said, almost matter- of-factly describing the double sucker punch to his soul, "and I have a grandmother who can go any minute."

The personal tragedies, however, haven't blotted out the career challenges that lie ahead. As much as others will focus on the progress of youngster Ervin Johnson and the addition of graybeard Bill Cartwright, it is Sam Perkins, 33, who looms largest for Seattle in the pivot. Coach George Karl already sees Perkins getting the largest slice of playing time at center.

Not stopping there, Karl even has declared that, "For us to have a shot at a championship, Sam Perkins has to have a great season."

Perkins understands what Karl is talking about.

"Either I have to shoot more, score more or do something else more," he said. "Something has to rise up in my game.

"I've got to be more aggressive. I've got to stop being so carefree and letting my teammates take all the shots. They're paying me to score. If they were paying me to stop people, I'd be like a Dennis Rodman."

In Seattle, Perkins has borne little resemblance to Rodman, the rebounding demon. Touting a career rebounding average of about eight a game into his first full season as a Sonic, Perkins tumbled last year to 4.5. In two games, against Orlando and Chicago, Perkins failed to grab a rebound.

Much of Perkins' rebounding dropoff has to do with how frequently Sonic big men are shipwrecked on the perimeter, the result of the team's freely switching defense. A lot of it also has to do with Perkins' evolution as a three-point-shooting center. Last year, he attempted 270 three-pointers, almost quadruple his previous highest total.

"When I first came here, it was far more experimental," Perkins said of his three-point shooting. "Then it became an expectation, and I was trying to do what the team wanted.

"I took whatever happened last year as a challenge. I wanted to get better, and the better I got, the more into it I got.

"When I ran down court, I found myself stopping at the line and, instead of going for easy layups, I'd shoot the three. It got so mental, I looked for it all the time."

This year, Perkins says he'll look inside more often. And Karl says the Sonics will try to put Perkins there more often.

But because it's early in training camp, there'll be plenty of time to make those adjustments. Perkins has bigger ones to make in the meantime.

"Shooting, rebounding . . . somehow none of that seems so important now," Perkins said. "It's my job, sure. . . ."

But life intrudes.