It was no accident Saturday that Clippers guard Luke Kennard began the NBA’s 3-point competition by starting in the right corner of Cleveland’s court with a rack of balls to his left.
This was Kennard’s first time competing on the league’s All-Star weekend stage but not the left-handed shooter’s first 3-point competition. Even a decade ago while in high school, “I can remember Luke running to the rack right to left,” said his Franklin (Ohio) High coach, Brian Bales, “and always wanting to get it off that rack with his left hand.”
Those contests included winning the prestigious McDonald’s high school All-American competition. They also included stops at a southern Ohio amusement park a short drive from where Kennard grew up outside Dayton. Kennard, Bales, the coach’s son and a teammate would buy season passes to the amusement park and bring extra cash nearly every summer weekend to play the $5 3-point contest. The shooting games Kennard had cribbed from watching college practices during unofficial visits, the ones he then brought home to try to master, apparently were not enough of a challenge.
