Perk's Grandparents Weigh In

--The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas

Decked out in Boston Celtics baseball hats and T-shirts bearing a large photo of their grandson, Celtics starting center Kendrick Perkins, Raymond and Mary Lewis fielded telephone calls all day long on Wednesday at their Beaumont home.

Family, friends and well-wishers offered congratulations to the couple who raised Perkins from the time he was 5 years old. "I'm so happy for him and the whole team," Mary Lewis said. "It's an exciting time for us and all the other Celtics families."

The Celtics pummeled the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the NBA finals on Tuesday to win the championship.

Perkins, 23, who graduated from Clifton J. Ozen High School in Beaumont in 2003, averaged 6.6 points and 6.10 rebounds per game throughout the Celtics' playoff run.

The Lewises traveled to Los Angeles to watch Games 3, 4, and 5 at the Staples Center. They also spent time with Perkins and his 9-month-old son, Kendrick Perkins II.

"He is a Daddy's boy," Mary Lewis said of the younger Perkins. "As soon as he walks in the door, he only wants his Daddy."

The couple returned to Beaumont on Monday and watched Game 6 in the comfort of their living room.

Perkins, who strained his left shoulder in Boston's Game 4 victory on Thursday, did not play in Game 5 but played in Game 6, a game-time decision.

"I spoke with him right before the game and he assured me that he was feeling fine and that he was ready to play," Mary Lewis said.

The 72-year-old woman said she was planting flowers in her garden when the game started and she hesitated before going inside to watch.

"I get so nervous," she said. "It's hard to watch, especially knowing he's hurt."

Even though the Celtics took an insurmountable lead early in Game 6, it wasn't until the final buzzer that it all sank in for Mary Lewis.

Her thoughts shifted to her daughter, Ercell Minx, Perkins' mother, who was shot and killed in 1989.

"I know she was looking down at him," Mary Lewis said, her eyes tearing up. "I know she's so proud of him and her little grandson."

After her daughter's death, the Lewises took Perkins in and raised him until he entered the NBA draft in 2003.

They said Perkins, who now is 6 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 264 pounds, always towered over the other children, even when he first started playing basketball at the age of 3 at the YMCA.

"He's had to lean down to hug me for as long as I can remember," Mary Lewis said.

It was sports and the family's strong faith that kept Perkins going after his mother's death, his grandparents said.

"He also played football and baseball as a little boy but he always loved basketball," said Raymond Lewis, 73.

"He used to fall asleep holding the basketball," Mary Lewis said.

Perkins attended Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School in Beaumont throughout elementary school and was an altar boy at the church until he entered the NBA draft.

"We didn't have a robe long enough for him," said the Rev. Henry Davis of Our Mother of Mercy. "We had to have one specially made for him. He's the tallest altar boy we've ever had."

In addition to the state championship in 2001, Perkins led Ozen to the Class 4A state finals in 2002 and 2003.

In his last three seasons at Ozen, the Panthers compiled an overall record of 100-4.

Perkins entered the NBA draft straight out of high school.

He was the 27th pick, drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies but immediately traded to the Celtics.

Mary Lewis got to know the Celtics players, staff and their families recently at a get-together at Celtics forward Kevin Garnett's home.

"They are all really good people," she said. "They all genuinely get along really well. The teamwork you see on the television, it's real."

Perkins is expected to spend some time in Beaumont this summer, as he has every summer since he entered the NBA, but the Lewises aren't sure when.

Local leaders already are planning to give Perkins a festive homecoming when he does visit.

Ransom "Duce" Jones, Jefferson County justice of the peace and a longtime friend of Perkins and his family, said he's in talks with county and city leaders about having a parade for Perkins and to drawing up proclamations to declare "Kendrick Perkins Day."

Jones said Perkins has spoken to local youth in the past about the importance of education.

"He's shown the kids all over this community that with education and stick-to-itiveness, you can succeed," said Jones, who on Wednesday was wearing an official Celtics jersey -- baggy and reaching down to his knees -- that he got from Perkins.

Jones said he also bumped into Perkins in 2004 during a trip to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The player was touring the nation's capital with a group of children from Boston for a Celtics charity project.

"He's a good man," Jones said of Perkins. "He deserves an unforgettable homecoming."