More than most people, Bulls broadcaster Johnny “Red” Kerr knows what A.C. Green has gone through.
Green broke Randy Smith’s NBA record for consecutive games played Thursday night when the Dallas Mavericks met the Golden State Warriors. It was Green’s 907th game, dropping Smith to second place with 906 games. A fellow named Johnny Kerr, who played for Syracuse, Philadelphia and Baltimore in the ’50s and ’60s, is in third with 844 games.
Smith broke Kerr’s record during the 1982-83 season.
“The only three people that streak means anything to are A.C. Green, Randy and myself, and maybe our wives,” Kerr said. “That’s six people who really know what went into that. I’d come up with a twisted ankle or something like that, and you didn’t have the things you have today. When I was in Syracuse, my wife would get a bucket of snow to soak my ankle in. They have so much technology today, and the doctors and the weight training. We didn’t even have a trainer. I had to wrap my own ankles.”
Kerr’s streak ended while he was with the Baltimore Bullets. His coach and friend, Paul Seymour, simply decided to sit Kerr down with Kerr healthy.
“I don’t think a coach has the courage to sit a player today,” Kerr said. “When I broke my streak, I was healthy. He just stopped it. He said, `Well, the streak had to end sometime.’ I wish I had kept on playing because I never missed a game.”
That’s one of the reasons Kerr believes Green’s streak can be surpassed. Another reason is expansion: With 29 teams in the league, Kerr reasons that more players have a chance to hang on longer.
Kerr said another reason is how teams tend to the health of their players.
“The biggest thing is the medical advances the players have,” Kerr said. “Chip (Schaefer, the Bulls’ trainer) travels with these guys on the plane, and they put electronics and ultrasound on their legs. If I wanted ultrasound, I had to put my foot on an FM radio. They take care of guys today. And there are 29 teams. When I played, there were eight.”
Kerr said there were nights when it was a struggle to prolong the streak.
“A lot of times I felt like crap,” he said. “I’d come to the game and I’d sit there, and then I’d warm up and then the band would start playing. All of a sudden your hands are sweaty and you say, `OK, let’s go.’ “
What kind of player will it take to surpass Green’s durability standard?
“Probably a big guy could do it,” Kerr said. “There seems to be so much demand that those are the guys who tend to hang around the longest.”
