Chicago Demons Basketball Program

Joe Henricksen 

For Sun-Times Media @joehoopsreport                     

When someone saluted Lewis Thorpe this summer with, “Hey coach, congrats on 6-9,” the North Lawndale coach had no idea what he was being congratulated for.

“At first I walked away, saying thanks,” says Thorpe of being polite in response to the goodwill gesture. “But then I stopped and said, ‘Wait, what are you talking about?’”

The response: “The Perkins kid.”

Thorpe had no idea who “the Perkins kid” was or that he had enrolled at North Lawndale. After all, this was an unknown player in the city who spent his junior year playing at a low-profile Chicago Public League school and had sprouted four to five inches in the past year.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! Is this another …

Stop right there. No, it’s not.

While there will never be another Anthony Davis-type story to sweep through Chicago –– and I mean never –– the Kenneth Perkins story is still pretty intriguing.

When Chicago Public Schools decided to close Dyett High School in 2015, the numbers in the Bronzeville neighborhood school on Chicago’s South Side continued to plummet. Perkins was part of that exodus. After this past school year, Perkins, who scored 34 points in leading Dyett to a regional quarterfinal win over Chicago Tech Academy this past season, moved to the West Side and landed at North Lawndale this summer.

And now that Thorpe has gotten a taste of Perkins?

“We are blessed to have him,” says Thorpe, almost sheepishly as if he can’t believe this bundle of talent landed on his doorstep out of nowhere.

Though very few people are even aware of Perkins, his talents or his story, a forecasted buzz is being delivered. Perkins is downright intriguing. He’s grown to a legitimate 6-9 while still playing with the perimeter skills and movement he possessed when he was a 6-4 or 6-5 wing.

“He’s shot up at least four inches in the last year, so he’s now a 6-9 kid who can play out on the wing and attack the basket off the dribble,” says Thorpe. “He’s very skilled. He can shoot it and put it on the floor. He can score it, push it on the break, go coast to coast. I love his versatility.”

Thorpe’s praise doesn’t stop there.

“I really think he can be a first-team all-city player,” says Thorpe, who has coached his share of talented Public League players over the years. “That’s the type of talent and potential I think he has.”

Perkins’ first taste of truly competitive basketball came this past summer while playing on the AAU circuit for the very first time. Von Steuben coach Vince Carter, the director of the Chicago Demons team Perkins ran with, saw significant strides made in July alone.

“He went from being nervous and timid to being more comfortable and playing with more confidence,” says Carter of the three-week progression he saw Perkins make in July. “He just hadn’t played at that level before. But he has tremendous upside, and he’s what you call a super late-bloomer.”

With a comfort level handling and shooting the basketball at his size, Perkins is a bonafide Division I talent with great potential. The unknown prospect is poised to skyrocket up the Class of 2015 player rankings in Illinois.

Perkins is far from a finished product or even close to reaching his potential. Although long and rangy, he’s rail thin with very little strength. There will undoubtedly be concerns about whether he can handle the physical nature of the game, both now and in the near future. He will also be going from facing a schedule that saw the likes of Alcott, South Shore and Ace Tech to seeing Farragut, Marshall and Whitney Young on the West Side.

After checking into Perkins once he received the news of his arrival, Thorpe gathered enough intel to know he had a player who did have a few breakout games last year but without any consistency –– or competition.

“He’s still finding his way,” says Thorpe, who has watched several college coaches at all levels trickle in during open gyms the past two weeks to check out his new basketball toy. “He’s going to have to find his way, find his place, and that will happen in time.”

Perkins is as anonymous of a 6-9 basketball player as you will find in the city of Chicago. But in a short time Thorpe sees the ingredients, beyond his obvious talents, that can turn an unknown into an appealing and productive player.

“He doesn’t realize how good he can be,” Thorpe adds. “He’s hungry. He’s a gym rat. But this is all new to him –– the conditioning, the weight room, the level of competition. But that’s what makes him such an interesting and exciting player.”

And it also shows that, yes, you can still find hidden, late-blooming talent in a closely-watched and scrutinized basketball hub like Chicago.