Jackson State basketball just landed a name that doesn’t need an introduction. Kendrick Perkins — 14-year NBA veteran, 2008 champion with the Celtics, and one of ESPN’s most recognizable NBA voices — has agreed to become the program’s first-ever general manager. The news broke via ESPN’s Shams Charania on June 19, and fittingly, the announcement landed on Juneteenth.
This isn’t a token hire. Perkins is stepping into a real decision-making role, working hand-in-hand with first-year head coach Trey Johnson and athletic director Ashley Robinson to reshape how this program competes in the NIL era. He’s keeping his seat on ESPN’s air while doing it, adding the GM title to his broadcasting duties instead of walking away from either one.
Why Jackson State needed this. The Tigers went 12-21 last season and haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2007 — the same year Trey Johnson, now the head coach, was still lacing them up as a player. Johnson was promoted from associate head coach in April after Mo Williams’ departure, so he’s building this thing from the ground up. Pairing a first-year coach with a national name like Perkins is Jackson State betting big that credibility and connections can do what a recruiting budget alone can’t.
And Perkins brings both. His job is centered on connecting Tigers players to professional networks and raising the program’s visibility — fundraising, NIL, exposure, all of it. Robinson didn’t undersell what that means for a SWAC program: “That’s going to be huge for us,” she said. Johnson echoed the same urgency, calling it part of “building a championship-caliber program while creating meaningful opportunities for our student-athletes beyond the court.”
Perkins himself never played a game of college basketball. He went straight from Clifton J. Ozen High School in Beaumont, Texas, to the NBA as the No. 27 pick in 2003, got flipped to Boston, and built a 14-year career that included a championship, stops with Oklahoma City, Cleveland, and New Orleans, and a second act at ESPN that’s made him a household name in basketball media. Now he’s putting that career to work for an HBCU.
He’s not the first star to do this — Steph Curry holds a similar post at Davidson, John Wall at Howard, Damian Lillard at Weber State, Shaquille O’Neal at Sacramento State. But for Jackson State, landing someone with Perkins’ name and reach is exactly the kind of move that changes how the rest of the country looks at this program.
“I’m thankful for this opportunity to impact young lives and pour back into my community,” Perkins said.