Most people don’t think about all of the Chicago Bulls‘ great shooters boasted in the hay day, especially in the 1990s. All-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan played around so many great shooters with the Bulls, it’s easy to forget some of them. Some of those names included Steve Kerr, Craig Hodges, John Paxson, and B.J. Armstrong.
The final name there was definitely one of the most underrated shooters in Bulls’ franchise history. Armstrong also doesn’t tend to get the respect he deserves as one of the premier NBA shooters of the 1990s.
It just so happened that shooting, especially from beyond the arc, didn’t get the recognition that it does now in the 1990s. Mid-range scoring, tough back-to-the-basket scorers, and driving through really tough and physical defense to the rim was the name of the game in the 1990s. The game was a lot more physical then compared to now.
But Armstrong made his name scoring from beyond the arc. He led the league in three-point shooting percentage one season and finished in the top 10 in that same stat category three other times. And Armstrong currently ranks 12th in NBA history in career three-point shooting percentage, at 42.5.
Here are some of the players that Armstrong ranks ahead in career three-point shooting:
- Klay Thompson: 41.9
- JJ Redick: 41.4
- Brent Barry: 40.5
- Dell Curry: 40.2
- Peja Stojakovic: 40.0
- Ray Allen: 40.0
- Reggie Miller: 39.5
Those esteemed names are often considered to be much better shooters from their playing days in the NBA (at least if they’re retired) than Armstrong. But you can’t argue with the fact that Armstrong shot better than Armstrong shot at least 43 percent from beyond the arc in eight seasons.
Numbers prove former Chicago Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong was a great pure shooter
That is a truly crazy number.
To add to that, Armstrong shot at least 85 percent from the free-throw line in seven seasons in his NBA career. That proves just how good of a pure shooter that Armstrong was.
And it wasn’t just in the regular season that Armstrong was a premier shooter from deep. There were five years where he shot at least 40 percent from beyond the arc in the playoffs. In fact, he led the league in playoff three-point shooting percentage in the 1994 playoffs, when he shot a whopping 58.3 percent from beyond the arc.
There were times when Armstrong could really turn it on from beyond the arc. In the first and last games of the NBA Finals in 1993, where the Bulls topped the Phoenix Suns, Armstrong couldn’t be touched from deep. He made a combined seven three-pointers on nine attempts to help the Bulls get two pivotal wins over the Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals.
All in all, there is plenty of proof that Armstrong should commonly be regarded as one of the best pure shooters in NBA history. He is often forgotten in conversation with other names such as Stephen Curry, Miller, Thompson, Allen, etc. But that should change.
Armstrong had a good NBA career by all considerations. It just didn’t last as long as many would think. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, despite winning three titles and getting one All-Star nod. Of those 11 seasons, Armstrong played seven with the Bulls.