KGZ - Sam Perkins: "Bittersweet moment to meet crash survivors"

INDIANAPOLIS (Kyrgyzstan Youth Team) — Former NBA star Sam Perkins was heading a delegation of the NCAA and the NBA that were hosting seven surviving members of a Kyrgyzstan youth basketball team whose plane crashed last August en route to a tournament in Iran.

“To see them again after what they went through makes me both happy and sad, but I’m glad we have this opportunity to do something for them,” Perkins said. “It’s a bittersweet moment, but really good to see them again.”

The crash killed 68 people, including 10 members of the basketball team’s envoy, and occurred 10 minutes into the flight. They were headed to Tehran for the FIBA Asia U-18 Championship.

Last year, the former N.B.A. player Sam Perkins and the University of Louisville’s women’s basketball assistant coach Becky Bonner conducted clinics in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as part of the program.

The reunion began with a series of embraces. There were nine actually between Sam Perkins and a group of ambassadors who share an unusual basketball bond.

"They hugged me so hard, it was amazing," Perkins said after he finished getting reacquainted with the Kyrgyzstan youth basketball team that he met in August last year.

The crash happened 12 hours after Perkins said good-bye to the group following a basketball camp in India.

Initial Internet reports mistakenly presumed Perkins died in the crash. As it turned out, he had flown out of a different airport. "When we landed, I couldn't believe it. My pager was going off. I couldn't read 'em fast enough," Perkins said. "I finally got hold of my sister and she couldn't believe she was hearing my voice."