Shaquille O’Neal and his Orlando Magic were one of the few teams that stopped Michael Jordan in his tracks. The Chicago Bulls team with Michael Jordan had an air of inevitability around them. MJ himself was no less superhero-like in his performances. He is the biggest reason the Chicago Bulls won two three-peats from 1991 to 93 and 1996 to 98. O’Neal’s team had a young nondescript bench player named Steve Kerr.
The latter moved to Chicago in 1993. Many considered it to be a delayed move to a winning franchise. Their star player, Jordan, had just retired. Kerr looked like he will be ring-less in a team that couldn’t win. Then, 1995 came, and it saw the re-emergence of Jordan. Since then, Kerr became not only an important role player but also won five rings as a player. As a coach, he led the Golden State Warriors to 4 titles in 8 years.
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But the person who had the biggest shock at seeing this was Shaquille O’Neal. To be honest, nobody expected Kerr to succeed in doing this, but he did. Few people in Kerr’s early years in the NBA believed he would win five championships after seeing how poorly he performed in Orlando.
O’Neal was telling that the former guard was a terrible shooter on his podcast. The former big man said, “Me and D-Scott played with Steve Kerr. He couldn’t hit a shot! He could not hit a shot. That man went to the Bulls, and he got five rings.”
How Steve Kerr saved Michael Jordan in the 1997 Finals
Steve Kerr ended up winning five rings. Three for the Chicago Bulls and two for the San Antonio Spurs. If you want to win a ring in the association, sometimes being in the right location at the right time is crucial. We’ve seen players who were in the right place at the right time and took home the NBA trophy.
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Kerr was one of the guys. In the 1997 Finals, he was in a wide-open spot as Michael Jordan passed it to him. He gave the Chicago Bulls their sixth title during the Michael Jordan era with a 17-footer to seal Game 6.
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Kerr often says that he “saved” Jordan in 1997. Now, as a coach, he has created another dynasty as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Kerr, now, has a total of 9 rings as a player and a coach. It would be interesting to see whether Kerr could add more to the tally.