Given the way the Hawks have been playing, it’s come to look like anything is possible but you wouldn’t have to go far to find folks betting against Kyle Korver dunking.
The guy’s a shooter, after all, and leading the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage (53.5) and long balls made (130). He entered the game just having taken just 16 of his 332 shots from inside five feet.
It happened Wednesday, though, when for the first time in more than two seasons the 11th-year veteran sharpshooter threw down with 9:01 left in the second quarter for a 35-23 lead over the Pacers on the way to Atlanta’s 28th win in 30 outings.
“I was very surprised. I pointed at the bench,” said teammate Al Horford, who passed to Korver. “I didn’t even know it was Kyle, really … it was a good surprise.”
On a night when the Hawks tied the franchise record with their 14th consecutive win, Philips Arena went nuts upon the highlight moment in a 110-91 blowout.
On the bench, the Hawks all came out of their seats and Korver didn’t have to go far to find that bet.
Teammate Elton Brand lockers about 12 feet away.
“Elton made a bet with me, a $100 bet what would happen first: I’d get a dunk, or he’d hit a 3,” Korver said after dunking in an NBA game for the first time since Nov. 16, 2012 in a 112-96 win in Sacramento. “I’ve been watching Elton practicing his corner 3’s, and he’s shooting them really good so … “
Brand, who did not play, has made 2-of-19 3-point shots in his 15-plus-year career. He had something to say to Korver.
“I was absolutely surprised, but I don’t bet,” he said. “I told him … ‘Now that you’ve got your little dunk out of the way, get focused.’ “
A Korver dunk might not rank in Atlanta pro sports annals alongside, say, former Brave Rafael Belliard hitting a homerun.
The erstwhile 5-foot-6 shortstop went yard just once 671 games with the Braves from 1991-’98, and twice in a 17-year, 1,155-game Major League career. In 851 NBA games, Korver has dunked 16 times.
It’s just been a while.
“[Teammate] Dennis [Schroder] didn’t even think I could dunk,” he said after scoring 10 points and making two of Atlanta’s 13 3-pointers. “He asked me if that was my first one.”
In his second NBA season, Schroder wasn’t sure.
“It was an honest question; I didn’t know that he had dunked,” he said with a smile. “He told me that last year was his only year where he didn’t dunk.”
Korver may not have had a choice. When Horford passed to him, he was moving so fast and was so close to the basket that feathering the ball off glass might have been difficult.
“Dunk by default,” he said. “I’ll take it.”
About the Author
