Honest, fearless, dramatic, filled with stories about life on and off the court, The Education of Kendrick Perkins is a unique memoir that shows how he and we all can 'carry the hell on.' Why George Floyd's murder forced a reckoning about race in America.The false myths about the Black family and fatherhood.The truths told by writers including James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and others.The history of slavery and how that trauma affects generations of Black life.How many NBA players grow up in broken families and difficult circumstances.In this book, Perk reveals his awakening consciousness of larger issues that affected him, his fellow players, and Black Americans: Perk had to learn how to play with and against these stars, while adjusting to life on the road as a professional athlete.īut his education went beyond basketball. For a country boy, Boston was a completely new world, and the NBA a league of legends: Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Garnett, James Harden, Shaquille O'Neal, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Durant, and more. He left their home at age eighteen, drafted out of high school by the legendary Celtics. Now, in The Education of Kendrick Perkins, he opens a different side of himself: a powerful and intimate memoir that goes beyond basketball to discuss the reality of being Black in America.Ībandoned by his father, then orphaned after the murder of his mother, Perk was raised by his grandparents in a small Texas town. As a fourteen year NBA player and starting center for the 2008 NBA champion Boston Celtics, Perk earned a reputation as an enforcer, a fierce defender, and a great teammate. Now he tells all, offering the sports insights for which he has become a stellar ESPN commentator, and for the first time ever, sharing frank opinions about racial justice, political consciousness, and fatherhood.Kendrick 'Perk' Perkins is known for his blunt, opinionated, 'carry the hell on' commentary on ESPN's most popular shows.

Both on and off the court, Perk gained a reputation for his candor and conviction-his unabiding sense of right and wrong. In this powerful and intimate memoir, readers follow Perkins on his journey from small-town Texas athlete to the NBA.

He'd banged and bruised with the biggest and most skilled players the amateur basketball world had to offer. Sure, he'd traveled the country for camps and tournaments. At age eighteen, Kendrick Perkins left his grandparents' run-down yellow house in Beaumont, Texas for the last time.

'The Education of Kendrick Perkins is an intimate memoir about race, fatherhood, and basketball, from former NBA player and outspoken cultural critic, Kendrick 'Perk' Perkins.

The education of kendrick perkins