Burke will play the 32nd game of his NBA career Saturday night, when the Jazz battle the Washington Wizards at EnergySolutions Arena. He’s been working on his pull-up bank shot, however, since he first picked up a basketball.
It is an unusual weapon in today’s drive-and-kick, 3-point dominated NBA.
"I’ve been practicing it a long time," Burke says. "It’s been one of my sweet-spot shots since I was young. Every time I get to the elbow — coming off a screen or in transition — that’s kind of my guide to making that basket. Hitting the ball off the backboard is something I’ve always practiced."
Burke credits an AAU coach in Ohio, Victor Dandridge, with teaching him the importance of using the glass to make angle jumpers.
"I still keep in touch with him now," Burke said. "He says that’s his favorite shot of mine — hitting that backboard shot. He used to make me practice it a lot.
"… I think I already had it, but I developed it when he worked me out. He made me shoot it over and over again. I think that’s why I can make it when some guards can’t."
Burke can’t recall ever winning a game by banking in a jumper at the buzzer but says "that shot has come in handy a lot of times. I’ve made some big baskets using the glass. I’ve always been comfortable with it."
Years ago, most NBA players were comfortable shooting off the backboard. In fact, they were expected to make bank shots.
"When I coached," Frank Layden said, "we practiced shooting the ball that way. We called it ‘automatic.’ … It was a shot our guys used all the time."
Before Red Auerbach died, Layden remembers talking to the legendary Boston Celtics coach about the issue.
"Red said, ‘I don’t know why we don’t use it more. We used to use it so much,’" Layden recalled.
According to Burke, some of his Utah teammates have teased him about how he often line-drives the ball off the glass. He’s not planning to make any major changes, however.
"They always get on me because they say I shoot it too hard," Burke said. "They want me to get under it a little more — shoot it a little softer. But I have confidence to shoot it this way."