Growing up in Fort Smith, Rodney Perry undoubtedly wanted to be a successful basketball player, which he accomplished.

But even at a young age, Perry also expressed a desire to coach.

He has done that as well, including guiding and mentoring several players who are now playing in the NBA or about to play in the NBA.

Perry, a former Northside standout and current assistant coach at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, was back in his hometown and his former school earlier this week to conduct the Pro Elite Basketball Camp, which he has also done in nearby cities like Tulsa, Kansas City and Springfield, Mo., where he played college ball at now Missouri State University after having played at Westark College (now UAFS) as well.

“With me being from here, my mindset was the fact of I’m going to go and do this, I’m going to go play Division I college basketball, I’m going to be a college coach,” Perry said. “Then along with that, with the hard work, I was able to achieve a lot of the other things that was able to come with that, too, that I didn’t necessarily set out to do when I first started.

“It actually ended up being a great situation all the way around, and by me being in the situation I’m in right now, coaching college basketball for over 20 years, it’s just an opportunity for me to be able to come back and give back to my community.”

Perry added it was the second time he has come back to Fort Smith to put together his camp, which is designed to teach young players the fundamentals of basketball.

“The number one thing is details, paying attention to the details,” Perry said. “All the little things makes a big difference.

“Even when we’re teaching them that’s the difference in winning and losing could be some of the little things. If we say, ‘Touch the line,’ that’s exactly what it means, touch the line. If we say, ‘Pivot on the right foot,’ that means actually pivot on the right foot. ... We’re sticklers on the techniques and the details of everything.”


Perry also teaches players about the mental aspects of the game in his camps.

“What I mean by mental aspect is we start teaching them how to change their mentality of instead of saying, ‘I wish,’ or ‘I hope,’ where ‘I’m going to,’” Perry said.

Perry, who is also the co-founder of Kansas City-based Mokan Elite Basketball club, one of the top boys basketball development programs in the Midwest, has coached five players who are now currently playing in the NBA, including Semi Ojeleye of the Boston Celtics, Anthony Tolliver of the Detroit Pistons and former Kentucky standout Willie Cauley-Stein, now with the Sacramento Kings.

In addition, Perry has coached several college players who are expected to hear their names called in next week’s NBA Draft. That includes former Oklahoma guard Trae Young, a potential high draft pick who turned pro after playing one season for the Sooners.

“He’s one of the guys that I’ve coached for the last few years and actually when he played at Oklahoma this past season, I still felt like I was coaching him because he called me every week to go over games and things like that,” Perry said of Young. “So I’m blessed and fortunate enough to be able to be at the draft with him next week not only with him but (former Missouri player) Michael Porter Jr., who’s also projected to be a lottery pick as well.”

Perry, who has coached and mentored more than 100 players who have received college scholarships, also coached two players who were a part of the recent Final Four run by Loyola University Chicago, Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson.

“All of those guys have a lot of respect for me and I have a lot of respect for them with what they’ve been able to accomplish with their careers and everything and it’s a lot of hard work,” Perry said. “They respected what I had to tell them and teach them and they went and did those things and it helped pay off for them to be able to get to where they are today.”


Coaching was something Perry wanted to do since he was 12, after hearing then-Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson speak at a function.

“With Nolan Richardson being at the University of Arkansas and getting a chance to meet him and kind of tell him that I wanted to be a coach one day, he gave me a bit of advice that I’ve always taken with me everywhere I’ve been and he said, ‘If you’re going to be successful at this line of work, which is coaching, you’ve got to be able to do three things extremely well, and that’s motivate, communicate and teach,’” Perry said. “So I’ve always taken those things there and tried to master being able to do all three, and that’s really helped my career also.”

Another coach who inspired Perry was his coach at Missouri State (at the time known as Southwest Missouri State), Charlie Spoonhour.

“It didn’t hurt that I played for a Hall of Fame coach in Charlie Spoonhour at Missouri State, so I was able to take things that I learned from him and incorporated it into my coaching as well, so I’ve had great mentors that was able to allow me to be the coach that I am today,” Perry said.

Perry has served as an assistant at, among other places, Western Illinois University and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

He also served as the head coach at Avila University in Kansas City from 2010 to 2016, and was an assistant on the 2016 Team USA Under-17 world championship team that won a gold medal. Perry was even the head coach of the USA Nike World Challenge team which won the gold in 2015 and a bronze in 2012.

Now, Perry is at Oral Roberts University, where he wrapped up his second season as an assistant as well as the team’s recruiting coordinator. One player he tried to pursue was former Northside standout Isaiah Joe, who instead will be heading to Arkansas this fall.


“We actually recruited Isaiah Joe, but we kind of knew that it was going to be a long-shot considering his ties with Arkansas and his goal of wanting to go play for the University of Arkansas as well,” Perry said.

Nevertheless, Perry is excited about Oral Roberts’ chances this upcoming season.

“Coach Paul Mills has done an outstanding job of assembling talent,” Perry said. “We were the seventh-youngest team in the country last year and we’re still going to be pretty young this next year also, but looking forward to the second year in the program for coach Mills and any time you can get in there and start to get some of your own players and to start to make sure you have your own culture the way you want and implement your system, that’s what builds winning.”

With Perry being back in Fort Smith this week, it gave him the chance to meet up with some old friends, including current Northside coach Eric Burnett. They were teammates with the Grizzlies and even neighbors.

“We grew up together and it was great last year when they were actually making a run to the state tournament, we had a chance to visit right before the state tournament because they played a team they had lost to earlier, so he had me watch the film and kind of help him come up with a game plan,” Perry said of Burnett. “Then they actually won the game, so it was exciting to be able to see those guys go win it as well.”

Perry also got the chance to conduct business on the very court where he starred as a guard for the Grizzlies, and two years ago was enshrined in the team’s Hall of Fame.

“Just reminiscing of all the times, the great times and the tough times and the hard times that we had here playing for (former coach) Doug McKinney and the exciting wins; beating (Little Rock) Parkview and going all the way to state and almost winning the whole thing,” Perry said. “Just being able to look around the gym and looking at the pictures on the wall and the different things, it just brings back so many great memories and knowing that this is where you grew up and it helped develop you into becoming the person that you are today.”
