There are many protagonists of this blog who spend their entire lives linked to the sport that made them famous. This Sunday is a good example of this. A man who dedicated 60 years to basketball in various roles. Is Johnny Kerr.
Born on July 17, 1932 in Chicago, John Graham Kerr began to passionately play soccer (association, European), but in high school he had a growth spurt and the basketball coach and the center director convinced him to switch to the sport of basketball. He only played with them for one year, in 1950, and made his high school team Chicago champions.
He spent his career at the University of Illinois, where he became the star of its basketball team. He reached a height of 2.06 meters and he left his university being the best player in its entire history.
He entered the draft of the 1954 NBA and was drafted sixth overall by the Syracuse Nationals (who nine years later would move to Philadelphia and become the 76ers). In his year of rookie, the Nationals won the NBAwith him as the star.
Kerr, nicknamed ‘Red’ for having red hair, experienced the move to Philly and in 1965 he went to the Baltimore Bullets (who would later move to Washington DC). After one season on this team, he hung up his boots and retired with 12,480 points (13.8 pp) and 10,092 rebounds (11.2 pp) and the NBA record for most consecutive games played (844), which would not be broken until 1982.
One of the reasons for his retirement is that in 1966 there was an expansion of the league and, among others, the Chicago Bulls were born. Kerr wanted to take over as coach of his hometown team and he did. They reached the playoffs and they won 33 games, extraordinary data for a rookie team, which led to Kerr being chosen Coach of the Year.
‘Red’ Kerr’s second season was not so good and in 1968 he took over as coach of the Phoenix Suns, who also debuted that year. He could not repeat his Chicago feat and the team finished as the worst in the regular league. It’s funny, because the Suns lost the pick of the draft who could have brought one Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to the Arizona team.
The fact is that Kerr stopped being a coach, although he stayed in Phoenix as radio commentator the next season.
Indeed, ‘Red’ Kerr changed his occupation and moved into the media. After two years with the Virginia Squires of the ABA in a front-office position, Kerr joined the Chicago Bulls againas a commentator for his team’s matches on radio and television. He held the position between 1975 and 2008.
Obviously, Kerr lived through the golden era of Michael Jordan’s Bulls as a commentator, and was able to narrate the six rings that ‘Air’ won in the 90s. In fact, Kerr was part of a ritual that Jordan carried out before each game: 23 would stand right in front of where Kerr sat, fill his hands with talcum powder and clap his hands in front of the former coach and former player.
Johnny Kerr was diagnosed with prostate cancer and began to withdraw from daily activities. On February 10, 2009, the Bulls honored him at halftime of a Bulls game: they unveiled a bust of Kerr that would be placed in the United Center and honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame. 16 days later, ‘Red’ Kerr died. He was 76 years old.
I hope you liked the article. Until next week.