Sam Perkins: Did You Really Just Say Neat?

Imagine you're Tim Wilkin, a writer for a smallish paper (The Times-Union of Albany, New York), and you've scored an interview with former resident/basketball star Sam Perkins.

Now, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're just a hair nervous, in that Sam Perkins 1) is more famous than just about anyone you have ever interviewed and 2) exudes more cool through his left pinky toenail than you do through your entire body.

So, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're hoping your Q&A with Big Smooth can at least get off to a solid start, because, man, you're more nervous than a Clipper fan with a $250 Blake Griffin jersey.

And then this happens:

Q: Coming back to be inducted into the Capital District Basketball Hall of Fame ... is that a neat thing for you?

A: Is it neat? I haven't heard that word in awhile. It's cool.

Perkins manages to help Wilkin along by not hanging up the phone after one cliched question ("Who was your favorite teammate?" "What are you doing now?") after another (all of which begs the question: Do they have the internet in Albany yet?).

Not surprisingly, there was nothing too revelatory in the article, although it was a bit of a surprise to see Sam Perkins list Dick Motta as his favorite coach, putting him ahead of (among others): Dean Smith and George Karl.

One aspect emerged for sure, though: Sam Perkins is definitely not neat.