Shannon Perry remembers when she cared about the game of basketball. Those days were fun. The game came easy to her. It put a smile on her face. She looked forward to picking up a ball, even if it meant tossing it through a reconfigured milk carton as a youngster.

Those days are gone now. To many people, she remains a mystery. A book without the fairy-tale ending. Those who know her can’t understand how a player who learned the game of basketball with such ease could stop playing so suddenly. She had established herself as one of the Syracuse women’s basketball team’s premier players, and just like that, she was gone. When her mother first heard, she didn’t believe Perry. Or maybe she just didn’t want to. To Perry, it’s simple – she lost her love and passion for the game.

‘I used to see a great passion for basketball in her,’ Perry’s mother Robin said. ‘Somewhere in the last couple of years she lost it.’

As those whom Perry grew to trust began leaving SU, Perry’s comfort level fell. Because of her turbulent junior season and the departure of head coach Marianna Freeman, Perry’s love for basketball died. Perry decided to quit before her senior year.

Perry’s passion for the game came to her as a 10-year-old playing in her driveway with her brothers and cousins. She grew up in a close-knit Providence neighborhood – most of her neighbors were related to her in some way. Playing with mostly all males, Perry learned to be tough and physical at a young age. If she came in crying because she got banged up too much, Robin sent her back out. No one went easy on her because she was a girl.

She followed her two brothers – Derrick and Lorenzo – to the local Boys and Girls Club. At first it was because she wanted to be with her brothers. Her older brother, Derrick, was especially influential. During the four-on-four games that took place in the family’s driveway, he taught Perry much of what she knows about basketball. She learned to double-pump to get away from a bigger defender and to rebound over larger players.

Much of Perry’s talent came to her naturally. She could always jump. She got her quickness from playing against older and bigger players. But for the most part, she didn’t have to work hard at the game. She played because it was fun, because it came naturally to her.

At LaSalle Prep, coach Leo Butler said that in practice Perry was the team’s hardest worker. She didn’t do much work outside of practice because she didn’t need to. At practice, though, she rarely took a break. When the rest of the team took brief water breaks, Perry grabbed another player to play one-on-one or fetch her rebounds. If the team ran 15 sprints, Perry would come in first. Everyone knew Perry was probably the best player in the state, but it didn’t matter to her. Some people at LaSalle jokingly bet she could beat an all-state boys player in a game of one-on-one.

The team played a summer league and, though Butler knew Perry could start, out of respect to older players, she came off the bench. When she entered the game, she promptly whipped a no-look half-court pass to a teammate. Then, she drove to the basket and made a lay-up from the left side while slapping the backboard with both hands. She’d earned her starting spot.

Each year the team improved until Perry’s senior year, when it won the state championship. Robin said that she has a room in the house lined with Perry’s trophies, including one that recognizes her for becoming the first player in LaSalle history to score 2,000 points. Perry loved the game. Butler remembers she always wore a smile, even during practice.

‘Like I told her the night she scored her 2,000th point, if she never scored more than two points in her four years, she would have made the program far better,’ Butler said. ‘Far more than the rebounds, points or the championship was the great experience of having a kid on the floor who loved the game.’

That love soon disappeared.

Butler said one thing about Perry is she has to know you and trust you before she will open up. He feels she came to LaSalle because she trusted the coaching staff more so than that of other area private schools. Though Syracuse wasn’t her first choice, her trust in former Providence and Syracuse assistant men’s coach Louis Orr brought her to SU. She played youth ball with Orr’s daughter, Monica. When Orr discovered Perry hadn’t committed to a school, he urged women’s assistant Felisha Legette-Jack to recruit her.

Perry liked the idea of being close to Orr and a bond grew between her and Legette-Jack. Freeman also gained Perry’s respect. Because of Perry’s connection with Orr, Legette-Jack and Freeman were able to enter Perry’s circle of trust.

‘Coach Freeman’s really down to earth,’ Perry said. ‘She reminded me of an aunt and someone else from my family. She made me feel comfortable.’

But once she arrived on campus, that circle of trust began to crumble. The weekend before practice was supposed to start during Perry’s freshman year, she went home. She almost never came back. Her family finally convinced her to return, but she missed a day of practice. The coaching staff was not happy, and Perry was forced to run early the next morning, Perry said. While Legette-Jack didn’t recall that particular incident, she said Perry’s case of homesickness is not unlike that of other freshmen.

But Perry eventually adjusted. Then, the two major reasons why she came to Syracuse were suddenly gone. Orr left to take the head-coaching job at Siena. Legette-Jack was gone, too, accepting an assistant coaching position at Michigan State. Perry was left alone.

Things quickly got worse. In practice, Perry, a sophomore at the time, separated her shoulder while battling for a rebound. She was out for the season. It was especially disappointing because of the time she had put in the summer before.

‘She was injured a lot,’ Legette-Jack said. ‘She’d never pushed her body to that magnitude before. She began to understand that she’d have to work harder.’

But Perry bounced back. Her redshirt sophomore year, the Orangewomen finally advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Finally Perry was content. That happiness soon faded, though.

Last season was one of great turbulence for the whole team. The Orangewomen lost several close games late in regulation and overtime. Perry, April Jean and Tierra Jackson all said players had egos. No one was willing to take the blame for losing. Everyone pointed fingers. Perry came to practice everyday to work hard. She was captain and wanted to win. She grew disgusted that many other players on the team weren’t working as hard, she said. The passion that began to slip away her first three years in Syracuse, truly began to wither and die.

‘Halfway through her time at Syracuse she told me, ‘This isn’t what I thought it was going to be,’ ‘ Butler said. ‘I thought it was going to be a little more interpersonal, but it’s more of a business. Shannon thrives on close-knit relationships and a personal touch.

‘It’s kind of sad in a way. It’s like seeing your own kid lose what she had when she was younger. But Shannon never let on or complained that it was a big deal.’

Last summer, Perry told her mother she was done. She stopped working out. She didn’t even want to think about basketball. Robin Perry brushed it aside, figuring Perry would reconsider and join the team. But Freeman was gone. Perry was suspended by the NCAA for the fall semester because of academics. But most of all, she didn’t love basketball anymore. It had become a chore.

Perry said if Freeman had stayed, she would have played out of respect for her coach. She also believes that Freeman wouldn’t let her quit. She met with new head coach Keith Cieplicki. She left unimpressed and knew the two would not get along. She didn’t like the way he talked to her.

Her Syracuse basketball career was over.

Though it disappointed Robin, she didn’t try to change Shannon’s mind. Shannon’s brother, Derrick, quietly tried to coax Perry into playing, but he knew stepping away from basketball would make her happy again.

‘When the time came to play, I had to think about it for a while,’ Perry said. ‘I didn’t want to let my brother down. But I realized I could be happier just going to classes.’

It’s turned out to be the right decision. Two of her closest friends on the team – Jean and Jackson – left the Orangewomen soon after she did. Perry’s going to graduate this year and wants to be a math teacher. This past summer, she opened a successful basketball camp for youngsters with a friend at home.

‘My degree’s the most important thing,’ Perry said. ‘I talk about teaching more than basketball now. I have a lot to offer.’

She’s started playing basketball again. After not playing competitively since the end of last season, Perry has made a few trips to Archbold Gymnasium to play pick-up games. Jean, who is Perry’s roommate, believes Perry will play again. Perry believes she needs a spark. Maybe it will come from Derrick. She needs those days again when she played in her driveway and at the Boys and Girls Club – the days when basketball was fun.

‘Just from being around, I know that she may temporarily be turned off,’ Jean said. ‘Just from the talks we’ve had, I know she sees it in her future.’

While Butler still feels coming to Syracuse was the right decision for Perry, she disagrees.

Said Perry: ‘If I played, I would have let the team down more by playing and not being happy.’

‘I wish I never came here.’

Maybe if she hadn’t, basketball would still be fun.

Published on April 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm