This page is for Kim Perrot, who was the Comets' point guard. She died on August 19, 1999. I wanted to make her a page that was quieter than my other page, so that's why it is dark blue and there is no marquee.

What I know about her

I only put things on here that I know are true, from the newspaper and the TV and from my aunt, because I don't want to make anything up about her.

• She was from Lafayette, Louisiana.
• She played college basketball at Southwestern Louisiana.
• She played pro basketball overseas before there was a WNBA.
• She joined the Comets for the very first season, in 1997.
• She was the point guard on the 1997 and 1998 championship teams.
• She was known for her defense and for getting steals, and for playing hard every single second.
• Early this year the doctors found out she had cancer, and it had already spread. She couldn't play this season.
• She died in Houston on August 19. She was 32 years old.

Number 10

Everybody knew who the Comets were playing for this year. She couldn't be on the court, but all season, and especially in the playoffs after she died, it felt like number 10 was out there with them. When they won Game 3 against the Liberty on September 5, it was only two and a half weeks after she died. I think that's why I cried. It wasn't just happy crying.

Why she is my hero

Everybody's favorites are Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes, and they're my favorites too. But Kim Perrot is my hero, and here's why.

I'm small. I am the second shortest girl on my team, and when we play against bigger girls, sometimes I feel like I don't belong out there. Kim Perrot wasn't one of the tall ones either. She wasn't the famous one. She was the one who brought the ball up and got everybody where they were supposed to be and then played defense harder than anybody on the floor. When I watched her on TV last year, I thought, oh, THAT'S how you do it when you're small. You just outwork everybody.

A point guard doesn't always get the points. Her job is to make everybody else better. My coach says that's the most important job on the floor and the one people notice least. I think that's what Kim Perrot was like. That's who I want to be.

When we got our jerseys for this year, I asked my coach if I could switch from #3 to #10, and she said yes. Every game this winter I'm going to try to get at least one steal for her.

If you play point guard

Dive for the loose ball. Get back on defense. Talk to your teammates. Don't quit, even when you're the smallest one out there. I think that would be a good way to remember her.

I don't have any pictures to put up because I don't have a scanner, and anyway I like to picture her the way I remember her from TV, bringing the ball up the court as fast as she could go.