The last person to be filmed was Steve Kerr, the former shooting guard with the highest 3-point percentage of all time. Kerr won five championships (3 with the Jordan-era Bulls, and 2 with the Spurs), but I will always remember him as the short, blonde gunner on the Arizona Wildcats of 1987-1988. That was the year he and Sean Elliott took Arizona to the Final Four, losing to Oklahoma, who eventually lost to Danny Manning and the Kansas Jayhawks.
But I remember watching numerous Arizona games that year, being in high school and having plenty of time to do so. Kerr would launch 3-pointer after 3-pointer, and whenever he made one, the Arizona PA announcer would sing "Steeeeeeeeeeve Keerrrrrrrrrrrr!" and 20,000 U of A fans would sing back, pitch perfectly, "Steeeeeeeeve Kerrrrrrr!"
I think he shot 55% from 3-point range that year, or something just as ridiculous.
So, of course, when Kerr finished his scenes with us and everybody was clapping politely, my assistant and I had to yell: "Steeeeeeeeeve Kerrrrrrrrrr!"
Nobody else knew what we were doing, but he looked at me, threw back his head and laughed.
He's the general manager of the Suns now and I think he might be back doing broadcasting for TNT, and he's won 5 championship rings, but I suspect nothing compares to that Final Four run in 1988, when he was 22 years old and chucking threes and the whole world was chanting his name.
3 comments:
(I had a horrible typo in the previous version of this.)
That's awesome--yelling that, and that he was delighted. I remember thinking Steve Kerr was like a deadly silver bullet that any team with him on it had--even when he was supposedly past his prime, he had an unnerving ability to hit the three in a clutch situation. It was like a dagger to the heart, but it was also beautiful and fantastic.
(p.s., I love seeing basketball players of yore in the flesh. It rules.)
The daughter of Lynn's dissertation chair is Kerr's wife. Small world.
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