Tag: Rick Sund

The 3-point weapon he possesses wasn’t always in his arsenal. In fact, the big man said he never desired it to be a part of his game. He had to be nudged into the possibility, and the nudging began as early as his second year in the league by former Atlanta Hawks general manager Rick Sund, who is now the senior adviser of basketball operations for the Hawks. “Rick is the one that told me, ‘Man, you have a really good mid-range. You should start shooting corner threes, that’s going to help extend your career,’” Horford told Yahoo Sports as he was leaving Chase Center after practice Saturday. “I used to be a banger down low and posting up. He was like, ‘Man, you’re not going to last in this league if you keep playing like that.’ Rick Sund was the first to tell me.”

The 3-point weapon he possesses wasn’t always in his arsenal. In fact, the big man said he never desired it to be a part of his game. He had to be nudged into the possibility, and the nudging began as early as his second year in the league by former Atlanta Hawks general manager Rick Sund, who is now the senior adviser of basketball operations for the Hawks.

“Rick is the one that told me, ‘Man, you have a really good mid-range. You should start shooting corner threes, that’s going to help extend your career,’” Horford told Yahoo Sports as he was leaving Chase Center after practice Saturday. “I used to be a banger down low and posting up. He was like, ‘Man, you’re not going to last in this league if you keep playing like that.’ Rick Sund was the first to tell me.”

Sund saw something in Horford that many hadn’t realized yet. “I remember our conversation very well. We were discussing if he’d be more suited as a four-man or a five,” Sund told Yahoo Sports via phone. “I believed and relayed that it would be to his advantage to develop into a stretch-five and draw guys away from the basket. I told him to work on that corner three and he’d really be an effective five-man. I also told him he’ll have a great opportunity to make the All-Star as a stretch-five. This is just what I saw.”

Horford said he understood where Sund was coming from, but he was reluctant to add the 3-ball due to how it would be perceived by fans, teammates and the opposition. “Coming into the league, I never imagined shooting the 3-ball. I definitely was on edge at times when I began attempting threes in games,” Horford told Yahoo Sports. “Players start looking at you crazy. You know how we are in the league, like, ‘Hell, nah. He’s trying to shoot threes?’ So it was that type of thing you had to deal with.”