He was a senior in high school then, but no Division I scholarships had come his way. Jackson has always insisted that he only wanted a system that involved all five players, suggesting he would lighten up when it comes to his legacy. "We call it the Hornacek Drill," says Chiesa. A Jazz official says Hornaceks phone call is typical. "I heard his meeting with Phil Jackson went 5 hours," John says. On the road we rest. Jeff Hornacek's retirement isn't about going away; it's about coming home. Do you have a sports website? Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Dan Sorensen is a freelance writer living in Salt Lake City. Phoenix is where we can trace Hornaceks intersection with Jackson, as it relates to the triangle offense that Hornacek may or may not be interested in running in New York. Hornacek pulls on the skin just under his chin. At five years old, his first target was the rim in the alley, but he progressed to his father's gym at St. Joseph and the basket over the garage in his family's second home. One day Stacy grew weary of chasing his missed shots and stepped back to observe. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Assuming the contract details will be a formality and the mutual interest that Phil Jackson and Jeff Hornacek have expressed to each other leads to Hornaceks becoming the next Knicks head coach, here is what fans will be getting, aside from their wish that it be anyone but the interim incumbent Kurt Rambis: Not an A-list media star. Better say that; theyre a big sponsor.. Draft: Phoenix Suns, 2nd round (22nd pick, 46th overall), 1986 NBA draft, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Monday, May 1, 12:49AM. Hornacek was a shooting coach and assistant coach for the Jazz from 2007-13. Originally reported by Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston, Hornacek and fellow assistant Will Weaver will not be on head coach Stephen Silass staff next season with the Rockets. Mom for awhile.. I knew I could play, he says. They gave it to him. Hornacek took a job rolling paper at the Sweetheart paper cup factory, waiting for an opportunity to enroll at Cornell, a place where he could play, but a place without athletic scholarships. His team played a fast-paced offense that catered to its guard-oriented strength talent before system. He is a player universally admired, both for his skill and his comportment. Originally published in Utah Jazz HomeCourt Magazine in January 1996. Ping-pong. Before a Bulls game in November, Hornacek practiced a running hook shot across the foul lane, a softly arched shot over the reach of imaginary defenders. The Jazzs announcement does not specifically say who the lead assistant will be, although Jensen held that role under Snyder, and no external hire ended up being made. Its Not a Riddle at All: What Led the Knicks to Jeff Hornacek, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/sports/basketball/jeff-hornacek-knicks-coach.html. Join Facebook to connect with Jeff Hornacek and others you may know. In addition to the coaching staff, Anthony Beaumont will be the video coordinator (it is increasingly common for video coordinators to rise up the coaching ranks, with Hardy being a prime example), Andrew Warren and Matthew Temple will be assistant video coordinators and Becca Ward will continue her role as director of team operations. Do you have a sports website? Hornacek played for the Jazz from 1994-2000 and was an assistant from 2011-2013. After that, he was head coach of the Phoenix Suns (2013-2016) and New Hornacek seemed headed to New York once before. It was 35 years ago. John, his leg in a cast from ankle to hip after falling from a step and fracturing his knee cap, laughs about the image of the stars he once watched rise from up close. Truth is, John never coached Jeff in high school, either. Find out more. The School Board will vote on the maps at a special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in Harvey. But Tyler, his five-year-old, isnt feeling too well, so Hornacek calls in to say he wont be able to make it. It was also an expensive place, too much of a stretch perhaps for a high school coach supporting four kids on less than $30,000 a year. Hornacek of course never expected to be a professional basketball player; he was going to be an accountant and then got sidetracked permanently, it turns out. He thought he would be a Sun for life until he was shipped east to Philadelphia in a trade for Charles Barkley soon after. Years later, after he retired and was hired as an assistant in Utah by Jerry Sloan for whom he played in two N.B.A. guard for 14 seasons, mostly with the Suns and the Utah Jazz. What a man does for a living is not important, he said. Never a Knick before, he comes east with a reputation for shotmaking and resourcefulness during a 14-year NBA career that saw him average 14 points per game. Jeff taught me that. Hes the first player weve had on a the perimeter whos made Stockton a better player., A final comparison with Bill Bradley: Hornacek is always thinking. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who preaches defense and rebounding above all else, once noted, "He's one of the guys that when he's open from 15 to 18 feet you almost feel like you don't have to go to the basket (to rebound) . Photo of Jeff Hornacek and Isiah Thomas that hangs in Hornacek's parents' home in Illinois. In high school, he showed as much promise in baseball as he did in basketball. 11/23/1994 Hornacek 11/13/1992 Hornacek 2/12/1993 Hornacek 2/7/1994 Hornacek 12/11/1992 Hornacek 11/12/1994 Hornacek 12/26/1992 Hornacek 3/13/1992 Hornacek 3/31/1992 Hornacek 1/23/1993 Hornacek 12/6/1991 Hornacek 1/18/1993 Hornacek Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Hornacek went to work in a paper cup factory following graduation, but his father, John, a freshman coach at another high school in Chicago, arranged a tryout Data Provided By Hornacek kept a notebook in which he recorded details and observations about his shooting technique and then referred to them when he hit the rare slump. Pool. Horny, Scarecrow, The Paperboy are nicknames for Jeff Hornacek. No one was ever quite certain how Hornacek did much of what he did. He wants to help out all he can. This one also goes in. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. They should call it Romper Room. As Jerry Sloan puts it, Jeffs a down-home guy.. It even included a rookie guard named Steve Kerr. I've seen it. He recalls playing pranks on rival St. Joseph High School, where Isiah Thomas played hoops, ahead of a big game. He tried everything to correct his shot, including taping his left thumb to his hand. April 12, 2018: Fired as Head Coach by the New York Knicks. . He is back in Holiday, Utah, fresh off a cross-country flight from JFK Thursday morning. "We were shocked, stunned," says Johnny Hornacek, who runs Hornacek's Golf Store in Scottsdale, Ariz. Utah later traded for Hornacek to bring him back west. Interpreted as: jeff hornaceck career high points in a regular-season game. "He could shoot accurately in a windstorm," Chiesa likes to say. Go green!" If you miss your first or second shot, you might hesitate to shoot. Hornacek interrupts the leisurely lacing up of his shoes to scratch his thigh. Anyone who has observed Hornacek knows it. Just the other night I woke up and heard the washing machine humming, Stacy says. Ryan tells Janet the basket is too low, so she dutifully notches it up another six inches. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), SAVE Promise Club (Students Against Violence Everywhere), Student Athletic Training (Sports Medicine), Nondiscrimination Commitment and Title IX Policy, Blackboard Web Community Manager Privacy Policy (Updated). Hornaceks a throwback, says Frank Layden. Jeff Hornacek grew up as one of four boys Jeff, Jay, Jim and Johnny in North Riverside, Ill., first shooting on a hoop in the neighboring alleyway, before the family moved to the house in La Grange when he entered the eighth grade. For her education, she attended Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix. As a point guard he guided the Cyclones to the Sweet Sixteen of the 1986 NCAA tournament. He played 14 years and half of his college career on a knee that doctors say will need to be replaced one day. His family has always kept close tabs on his career, from trekking to opposing college campuses across the Midwest to take in his Cyclone games to bar hopping in La Grange in order to watch his NBA games on satellite. Join our linker program. Hornacek is quitting the game to spend more time at home and home is Utah. The first time Hornacek faced Ralph Sampson, the 7-foot-4 sensation, he took the ball right at him twice and flipped the ball into the basket over Sampson's outstretched arms. Legend has it that his personal mandate was to make 100 free throws before retiring to dinner. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Seven years later, he has adopted Utah and vice versa. Twelve seasons into a career that commenced as a second-round pick out of Iowa State, where he had walked on, Hornacek's line on the night was 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting. We've taught it to Howard Eisley and Jacque Vaughn and Quincy Lewis and Scott Padgett. Jeff Hornacek coached the Phoenix Suns for two and a half seasons before he was fired by the team in February. But he tried it, and it worked. Yes, Hornacek had a losing (101-112) record in his two-plus seasons in Phoenix after a 48-34 overachieving start in 2013-14. Hornacek says Stacy had the biggest influence on his shot. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. And here at home, Im just a normal next-door neighbor. Hornacek, 53, grew up and played high school basketball in the suburbs of Chicago, Colangelos hometown. How will former Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek fair as the Knicks' head coach? She was a sports enthusiast and played volleyball for the school team. "I wish I could have coached the sons," Pingatore says. . Or write about sports? "But the time you go five for five, you feel you can take a freebie kind of shot. Find out more. The Bulls took one more title. Every step of the way his career was given a nudge by quirks of fate or accidents, in some cases literally. WebJeff Hornacek. He was very concerned. ", Hornacek made his name as the best pure shooter in then NBA. While trying to watch her kids' little league games, Stacy would field calls "every five minutes" on her cell phone Jeff, in some far-away NBA city, wanting the play-by-play and score. He found out in a phone call from a friend in Chicago who asked if he was all right. The Hornacek children played flashlight tag in the neighborhood while parents congregated in living rooms or on porches for card games. The biggest misconception people have is that its a glamorous life. The school district has released proposed attendance zones for its various schools. It was Jeff doing laundry. Fourteen years later, Hornacek is one of only 20 players ever to collect 15,000 points and 5,000 assists. Three Suns James Edwards, Jay Humphries and Grant Gondrezick were indicted by a grand jury investigating cocaine trafficking. "The mistake I made was that I should have fired the father!". Mr. Hornacek started every game after that. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more Hornacek is scheduled to come to the Delta Center early to sign autographs. People do recognize him all the time, of course. . Player stats broken down into various categories; i.e. A typical Hornacek play: a give and go that culminates under and behind the backboard, where he jumps and spins the ball back over his head, somehow banking it in while facing completely away from the basket. Tucked into the opposite corner is a crib, changing table and two Danish-Modern rocking chairs. Hes come a long way. Indeed he has. A few years ago, Stacy made a pillow case for Jeff to take on road trips. His mother, Sue, remembers one of her grandsons mentioning that the family needed to change shirts from the Suns to the Knicks this week. In the interim, Hornacek rolled paper at a paper cup company, and a coaching friend of his father's inquired about Jeff's whereabouts. Jeff went out and bought three packages of cake mix in case he messed up. It was a simple setting. It isn't just that Hornacek could shoot accurately that raised eyebrows; it's that he could do it from so many angles and in so many ways falling away, leaning, looking the other way, over 7-footers, under 7-footers, half-hooks, running jumpers, underhand, overhand, whatever and all of them with the quickest release in the NBA. The question that trails him all the way to New York is set: OK, but can he coach? He moved his left thumb off the ball, taped fingers together to follow proper form and survived a 1987 roster purge in Phoenix following a drug scandal that involved multiple players. "I'm overwhelmed. He could console himself by having his name on a plaque in Cooperstown. But there is only so much a father and husband can do from his room in the Marriott. "Tell you the truth," said When he was a kid, Hornacek played a lot of baseball and hockey. My birthday is February 15, and my mother always made me the red cake. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Shooting Guard and Point Guard After one game this season, a reporter happened to find himself following Hornacek as they walked from the Delta Center to the parking lot and was struck by the how severely he limped when he was out of the public eye. Jones and Lumpkin have been with the Jazz previously. After a few months at the factory, however, Hornacek headed for Ames, Iowa with enough money for tuition and a belief in himself. He mixed the enthusiasm of Cotton Fitzsimmons and Sloan's toughness into a brew that won 48 games his first season with plenty of guard play at a fast pace before bottoming out this February with 19 losses in his last 21 games. WebHornacek redshirted at Iowa State University (ISU) in 1981; he was a team walk-on who played from 1982 to 1986. A 1981 graduate of Lyons Township High School, Mr. Hornacek entered Iowa State University in 1982. He was also an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets. But what he could he do with the knee extra running? High school: Lyons Township. What seemed to bother him most about his career was that it demanded that his family bend their lives to his schedule. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com, Scores from any date in BAA/NBA or ABA history, Frequently Asked Questions about the NBA, WNBA and Basketball, Basketball-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREE. Do you have a blog? Do you have a blog? Javascript is required for the selection of a player. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Unlike a lot of professional athletes, Hornacek is not a sports fan himself. Hornaceks fidgeting betrays his discomfort at focusing so much on the record. He is the son of a coach and the father of three who re-entered NBA circles once his three children were all but raised. Hornacek didn't play for his father at St. Joseph; he attended nearby Lyons Township High School, where he earned All-State honors but little attention from He has done his own laundry after games so his wife could sleep (gentlemen, you could learn to hate this guy).