Last season the Chicago Bulls finished dead last in the NBA in three point field goal percentage. In the summer they went out and got Kyle Korver from Utah. All he did was lead the league in three point shooting percentage. Actually he broke the NBA season record for three point percentage, with a .536 eclipsing that of former Bull Steve Kerr and his .524 in 1994-95.
This year Korver’s in the top 20 in 3 pt% and the Bulls have a team have improved all the up to 12th in the league. In their 106-94 win over the Charlotte Bobcats Tuesday night, Korver went 5-5 from the field, 3-3 from distance.
But it didn’t stop Bobcats star Stephen Jackson from giving Korver’s abilities an extremely back-handed compliment that came off like a blatant insult:
By Paul M. Banks
“You can’t leave him open. Everybody knows he can’t do anything but shoot. When he shoots, he shoots it well. You have to respect him as a shooter. He can’t really do anything else, but if you let him sit out there and shoot he’s going to kill you. He should be in the All-Star three-point shootout every year. You can’t leave him open. You have to make him dribble or try and penetrate which he’s not good at but he had a good game tonight,” Jackson said.
So there you have it. Despite the fact that he just got beaten by Korver, Jackson overtly described Kyle’s game as extremely one-dimensional.
Teammate Gerald Henderson gave a more flattering and sportsmanlike assessment of Korver’s abilities:
“He is what everybody knows he is, a shooter, a great shooter, very efficient, I guarded him for awhile during the game, towards the end I made a couple bad decisions on him, on leaving him, and you can’t do that, because he’s automatic when he’s open,” Henderson said.
Jackson’s comments were brought to Korver’s attention, but he refused to return fire.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Korver said when he heard about Jackson’s back-handed compliment.
“Well, alright, I try to do it well,” he said after a reporter told him that Jackson believes Korver can’t do anything else but shoot.
Back to Korver’s perfect game. It was truly a treat to watch as his shooting stroke was looking just about as pretty as his flowing hair Tuesday night.
“Sometimes it happens, I got some good looks and I knocked him down,” he said.