It’s safe to say former San Antonio Spurs guard Steve Kerr would not have been nearly as
important to his five championship winning teams and the two with the Spurs if he had gotten two points for all those baskets he made instead of three.
Kerr always benefited from having someone on his team who would draw a double-team and stand behind the arc and knock down shots at a ridiculous percentage. With the Spurs it was both David Robinson and Timd Duncan. I’m not saying that what he did wasn’t impressive, it really was, I’m just saying that Kerr owes his career to the three-point line.
And Kerr is very much aware of this.
In an interview with ESPN, he talks about what the integration of the three-pointer meant to him in college basketball and then in the pros. Even though he only got one season in college with the three-point line, he still made the most of it, hitting almost 60% from downtown for the year.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m going to get all these open shots and I’m going to get three points for them?’ Most of my shots came from out there anyway.”
Kerr’s NBA career was no different. It always seemed like he was on fire from behind the line. Anytime there was a kick out and he was just standing out there wide open, you knew what was going to happen before he even shot it.
He’s the career leader in NBA three-point percentage, that doesn’t come as a shock to anyone. It was his bread and butter. No one has come along yet that is as good of a pure shooter as Kerr was, I don’t think anyone ever will — especially Spurs fans.
They will never forget his clutch three-point shooting in the playoffs versus the Dallas Mavericks in the 2003 playoffs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Z4KjVeWsU&w=424&h=280]
