Veteran center Kendrick Perkins told the Boston Globe that he isn't giving up on his NBA career after sitting out last season.
Perkins told the newspaper during a visit last week to the Las Vegas Summer League that he has been working to get into shape and hopes to garner an invite to an NBA team's training camp.
"I've been keeping my weight down, making sure I'm getting all the cardio I need, staying in great shape," he told the newspaper. "I'm just going to do what I can. I feel good. I've been on top of my basketball work and I'm just waiting for my opportunity, [if it] happens. I've just changed my diet, working on my quickness, and just trying to get better. It's 30 teams out there and I'm just looking for one opportunity. It will come. I'm just trying to leave it in God's hands."
Perkins last played in 2015-16 for the New Orleans Pelicans when he averaged 2.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 37 games. He sat out last season after he found little interest on the free-agent market. But he said the year off made him appreciate the game more and renewed his desire to play.
"You're sitting back, waiting on a job, you want in and not just sitting around the house. I wasn't ready for that in that point in my life," he told the Globe. "I think it was a very humbling situation for me. I thought it made me realize the importance and not to take it for granted."
Perkins, 32, has averaged 5.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in 13 NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers and Pelicans. He was the starting center for the Celtics team that beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the 2008 NBA Finals.