At 7’2”, Boston Celtics center Luke Kornet is the tallest American NBA player and he uses every bit of his tall frame to his advantage when he’s out on the court for Boston.
In fact, Kornet’s new way of defending a shooter is now being called the “Kornet Kontest” and it’s when he “defends” a shooter from 20-feet out by jumping from under the basket to block the view of the shooter.
Kornet says he developed this method by trying to find a way to impact the game. But then it suddenly evolved while in Maine last year, becoming a legitimate way to defend a shooter in Boston’s system.
“I was really just trying to stay in the paint last year in Maine, in terms of protecting the rim always and over-helping always, because that’s also sort of what we do up here.”
When Kornet does his “Kontest”, you really can’t see the basket from the corner, as you can see in the photo above and the video below.
Most shooters enjoy seeing the rim when putting up a shot and it’s fair to say that Kornet is a distraction to that, so in certain ways it is impactful if he does it right.
Per ESPN Stats & Information, Kornet has done his “Kontest” on 36 shots (34 of them were 3-pointers) with opponents only making 12 shots (33.3%).
It may look unorthodox, however the numbers don’t lie, the “Kornet Kontest” is effective and impacting the shooter, despite how it might look.
“I think it’s a smart play. He’s doing a better job knowing when to do it so that it doesn’t take him out of defensive position.”- Joe Mazzulla, Celtics interim head coach
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Photo Credit: Jimmy Mitchell, Chicago Bulls
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