Kyle Korver is the greatest shooter to ever rock a Utah Jazz jersey

MOver the years, a number of incredible shooters have suited up for the Utah Jazz, but none of them has proven as lethal from 3-point territory as Kyle Korver.

My wife isn’t a huge basketball fan, but if you ever ask her about who her favorite (past or present) member of the Utah Jazz is, she won’t miss a beat — it’s Kyle Korver. She’ll quickly smile (and blush a bit) and tell the story of how she once made “legitimate eye contact” with him from the nosebleed section at Energy Solutions Arena way back in 2010.

I highly doubt this, but hey — it’s her story, so run with it.

True or not, upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in December of 2007, Korver had Jazz fans smiling the moment his plane touched down. At the time, he was part of a trade that sent him from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Gordan Giriček and a future first-round pick. He stayed for three years, then returned for the better part of the 2018-2019 season.

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During his three-and-a-half-year stint in Utah, Korver appeared in 234 games for the Jazz, but only started a total of two of them. Still, while other Jazz sharpshooters have more minutes to their names, Korver rises above the rest as the one guy opponents couldn’t afford to leave open.

Korver’s list of shooting accolades is a lengthy one. Currently, Kyle comfortably occupies the fourth spot on the NBA’s all-time three-point list with 2,437 career makes — only Stephen Curry (2,495), Reggie Miller (2,560) and Ray Allen (2,973) have made more threes than Threezus.

That’s good dinner company, if you can get it.

But wait — things still get (much) better …

During his lengthy, 17-year NBA career, the Utah Jazz laid claim to Korver’s best three-point shooting season. In fact, it was arguably the best year-long, three-point shooting performance in NBA history. In 52 games, during the 2009-2010 season, Korver shot a jaw-dropping 53.6 percent average from deep, setting the league’s single-season three-point shooting record.

And if that’s not impressive enough, put this in your pipe and smoke it: of the 205 NBA players with at least 2,000 career three-point attempts, Korver finds himself with the second-highest (57.4) effective field goal percentage — yet again, right behind Chef Curry at 58.1 percent.

And remember …

All this from a guy who’s made a living in the league playing minutes off the bench.

As you well know, though, shooting isn’t limited to the three-point line — Kyle’s basketball brilliance isn’t, either. With an average, career-long field goal percentages of 44.2 percent, you might think much of his scoring happens at or near the rim. Unbelievably, that’s simply not the case with Korver: his average shot distance is 20.9 feet — just inside the three-point arc.

Furthermore, Korver is automatic from the free throw line. With Jeff Hornacek’s No. 14 jersey hanging in the rafters, this is something Jazz fans expect from the token white guy on their roster. Korver sits in 19th place all-time, shooting a reliable 87.6 percent from the charity stripe.

Numbers, numbers, numbers — if you love ‘em, great! And if not, this has been brutal.

In this world, looking like Ashton Kutcher might be enough to set you up for a lifetime of wealth and success. Fortunately, Kyle “The Machine Gun” Korver brought more to the table during his time in Utah. Because of it, he might very well go down as the franchise’s best all-time shooter.

To date, he most certainly is.