Steve Kerr lines up his shot.
There's no hand in his face, no faster, taller, stronger athletecollapsing on him to make his long jumper the usual experiment inmental discipline vs. physical limitations.
He lets fly, and the ball . . . misses everything.His younger brother Andrew retrieves the bouncing orb and tossesit back to the best active three-point shooter in the NBA.Older brother is now 1-for-12 from the side of his Lake Forestgarage, where he stands rooted in the same spot, firing shots downthe sloping pavement, to a nine-foot, bent-rimmed, netless hoop thatrocks merrily in the 25 m.p.h. wind."Well," says Andrew, who is visiting from Washington, D.C. "Atleast you're consistent."Kerr is that. Indeed, now that league-leading three-pointpercentage gunner Tim Legler of the Washington Bullets (.522 frombehind the arc on 128 made out of 245 attempts) is out with a kneeinjury, Kerr (.515 on 119-of-231) is the only player in the NBA whohas made more than half his three-point attempts.If he gets on a mini-hot streak - making, say, 10 of 12 to endthe season - he could pass the dormant Legler and win his secondstraight three-point shooting percentage title. Last year he led theleague with a .524 percentage, and this year he's shooting betterfrom 22 feet than a whole bunch of NBA players are shooting from thefree-throw line.This shooting in a sub-tornado wind is just for kicks. Kerrlaughs as a gust takes a shot and bends it like a big-league slider."Hmmm," he says. "Tough court."Kerr is easy-going about almost everything in life except hisbasketball game, which primarily means his shooting. It was noaccident that it was Kerr who salted away historic win No. 70against the Milwaukee Bucks by hitting a three-pointer and a longtwo-pointer to give the Bulls their first lead of the fourth quarter.He then grabbed a rebound, got fouled and drained two free throws toice the game.After the Bucks' Sherman Douglas dragged him to the floor withthat last foul with 13 seconds to go, Kerr actually started laughing.Why? "Because I knew the game was over," he says. "There wereonly a few seconds left."Yes, but if Kerr had clanged the free throws, the Bucks couldhave scored two quick buckets to win, right? "Yeah," he says withan impish smile. "But I knew I was going to make them."He almost always does. He has a free-throw percentage of .927;.Kerr was acquired in 1993 as a minimum-wage candidate to fillthe vacant John Paxson spot-up shooting trunks. Those shorts, ofcourse, are the ones that need to be filled for this athletic Bullsteam to be a full-range powerhouse.But Kerr gets no respect from the refs, so he has to make hispoints himself. From outside.And so what has he done?"I've practiced shooting a lot," he says. Indeed, he is theonly Bulls player to shoot 100 free throws after every practice.Every single practice.Pride drove him to his near-perfect percentage this season.Just as it drove him to shoot again and again in playgrounds, gymsand driveways such as this since he was a wee kid. How many shotshas he put up?"Lifetime?" he asks. "Oh, man."Kerr actually reinvented his shot when he came to the NBA fromthe University of Arizona by imitating the quick releases of JeffHornacek, Mark Price and Craig Hodges. The fundamentals he'd"learned at the John Wooden Basketball Camp didn't work becauseeverybody in the NBA is so quick," he admits. "I'd spot up and takemy little shot, and I got tired of seeing it swatted into the 10throw."So he taught himself to look at the floor, lulling his man intosomething less than full attention, then rising fast and finding thebasket with his eyes in mid-jump, then cutting loose.It's now five hours later and Kerr is playing against theDetroit Pistons at the United Center, helping the Bulls to their71st victory.Earlier, though, in the sun and wind of his driveway, he hadbeen lost in thought."Over a million, I'd guess," he had said.Shots in a lifetime, that is. Almost all from outside.Rick Telander's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday andFriday.
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