Conjuring Up Pervis

12/13/2007

Kendrick Perkins is now, unequivocally, unambiguously, officially part of Celtics lore. He joins Pervis Ellison on the short list entitled "Celtics centers who missed games because of injury involving a toe and a piece of furniture." Poor Pervis, who was almost always hurt (resulting in Danny Ainge nicknaming him "Out of Service Pervis"), missed most of a season when a coffee table fell on his foot. (That was the story, anyway, which Pervis and the Celtics resolutely stuck to. It may even be true. We'll have to wait for the Ellison Memoirs.)

Poor Perk missed his first game of the season last night - a 90-78 Celtics' win over the Kings - a couple of days after his bed collapsed on his toe. Perkins was in good spirits after the game, took a number of jokes well, and said he hoped to be able to play tomorrow. "I think he should be able to play [tomorrow] night," Ainge said.

Perkins missed practice Tuesday and coach Doc Rivers said it was because of a sore toe. There was no mention of how Perkins was hurt; players get sore toes all the time. Only a couple of reporters thought to buttonhole Perkins to get to the bottom of the matter and, soon thereafter, his story was sent 'round the world, courtesy of the Associated Press. And it was a doozy.

"I guess whoever put my bed together didn't put it together right when I moved, so one side of my bed fell," he said. "My bed was tilted, so I got out of my bed to go push down on the other side. And when I was about getting ready to push down on the other side, the headboard started coming in. So I tried to push the headboard back so it wouldn't fall over. My foot was under the bed and the other side of the bed fell on my foot."