This list has so far mostly been focused on recent basketball players who retired beyond 1990s. Now lets turn the clocks and go a bit further back to a time when Johnny Kerr was a NBA basketball player. Back in his days, Kerr had been an All Star 3 times in his 12 year short carrier. In his carrier, he made one of the longest victory streaks in the history on NBA. Like many legends discussed in this list. Kurr won medals on all levels of basket ball: high school, college, and professional.
The reason he started playing basket ball, however, wasn’t because he was fond of playing the sport since the beginning, it was because he grew by 8 inches in his final year of high school at Tiden Tech Chicago. He quite soccer, and joined basketball and one many medals and made a reputation in just one year of playing. This was when his carrier truly started. He got to play for the University of Illinois and helped get the team into the Big 10 and win the 1950s championship. He got drafted in to NBA in 1954 and got selected by Syracuse Nationals. In his first year of playing, he with his team won the East division championship. Much later in 1963 he won the NBA championships with the team. After his 11th season with Syracuse Nationals, Kerr switched to Philadelphia Sixers for 1 season.
Though the shine of the team was Schayes, Kerr still has an impressive stats with his average scoring always being in the double figures. Kerr also has another remarkable record in his carrier of playing 844 consecutive game from 1954 to 1965. This stayed a record until 1983 until Randy Smith broke it. Kerr retired in 1966 with 12,480 points scored and 10,092 rebounds taken. After retiring from playing the sport he started to coach it. He was assigned the Bulls, who at the time was known for its poor performance. It took a lot of work, but thanks to Kerr, the stats of the teach genuinely started to get better. He soon won the coach of the year award. He later on, however, got fired from being the team’s coach and started commentating for the Suns and the Bulls. Ker remained in the booth for the entirety of Michael Jordan’s carrier. In 2009, The Bulls unveiled a statue of Kerr that would stay in front of United Center in Chicago forever. Unfortunately, Kerr passed away in February of 2009 due to prostate cancer.
The hard work and achievements of this old fellow are still not forgotten and he is still celebrated in Chicago as one of their great backet ball legends.
Works Cited
“Legends Profile: Johnny Kerr.” NBA.com, www.nba.com/news/history-nba-legend-johnny-kerr. Accessed 13 Oct. 2022.
I love that you are discussing people further back in basketball history. I have never heard of his man and honestly forgot that significant events involving basketball have been going back for decades. I love your biography again and am glad I learned about someone new!
I knew about Kerr’s post NBA career but had never heard much of his NBA career. I was also unaware that he won coach of the year. I wonder shy he did not continue to coach if he seemed good at it. Overall, great writing it caught my attention and was easy to read.