I just found this article on another forum I go on. It was a good read, it's also in the latest issue of SI, last page.Paging Dr. Barryby: Rick ReillySome things in sports make no sense. The foul pole is fair. Olympic divers dive, shower, then dive again. Michael Irvin continues to be on TV.But nothing in sports is more ridiculous than bazillion-dollar athletes who can't make free throws.So many players look like they are flinging live quail. Unguarded, 15 feet from the hoop, they've got as much touch as a sumo wrestler wearing catcher's mitts. Shaq is a career 52-percenter and dropping. Ben Wallace is so sorry, he takes paint off the rim. You know it's bad when teammates slap hands with the shooter after he misses. (Hey, Dude! Pretty close!) And all the while there's a perfect solution that every player rebuffs out of sheer vanity.Rick Barry.The former ABA and NBA All-Star forward is the second-best free throw shooter of all time (90.0%, behind only Mark Price's 90.4%). He was as automatic as a Bulova, as reliable as sunup. And he shot them all granny style. Underhanded. From between his legs."I would shoot negative percentage before I shot like that," Shaq once grumbled. The Diesel has turned down Barry's offers of help over and over. "He said it wasn't good for his image," Barry says.Uh, Shaq? You take foul shots as though you were heaving a piano at a plate-glass window. What image are you going for? The Hulk?But it's not only Shaq. Nobody wants Barry's help, not even his kids. Four of his sons have played professionally, but they all refuse to shoot like him. "Dad," his son Scooter once told him, "it's hard enough being your son without shooting like that."Don't they know he improved Warriors teammate George Johnson by 40%?Me, I'm a 63-percenter. I found this out by going to my neighborhood gym and shooting 500 free throws. O.K., that sucks, right? But then I did what NBA bricklayers won't do. I went to see Rick Barry.Now 62, he still looks as if he could come off the bench for an NBA team. Or at least the Knicks. And he can still sink free throws like cops sink doughnuts."I make so many in a row, I get bored," he says. His wife, Lynn, says, "I've seen him not shoot for a year and then stand up and make 100 straight. He can make 20 straight with his eyes closed.""Eyes closed?" I scoffed. "Prove it."He made 11 in a row his first try.After about three hours he had me making gobs of them underhanded -- 12 in a row once, five in a row with my eyes closed. The shot is so soft that a lot more balls loaf around on the rim and drop in. And you think, Why don't more people try it?"Because it's ugly," says my pal Bill Pearson, who played for Wisconsin in the '70s.I stuck to it. Through snickers and punk kids muttering "gay" and an old guy at the Y one day shaking his head and then saying to his buddy, "That's how guys shoot when they can't shoot anymore."Oh, yeah? Within two weeks I'd grannied my free throw percentage up to 78. Yes, I looked like Aunt Bea at the county fair, but 78%!You want ugly? Let's take the stroke of Ben the Brick. At 41.9%, Wallace is the NBA's alltime worst free throw shooter. You could make 41.9% drop-kicking them in an Oscar de la Renta gown. Maybe Ben had that headband over his eyes. "If Ben were serious," Barry says, "I know I could get him shooting better than 70 percent."Wilt Chamberlain, who for years held the record for the most pathetic free-throw-shooting season ever (38.0%), is one of the few guys to go underhanded in an effort to improve. He got better but then gave it up. "I felt silly -- like a sissy," he wrote in his 1973 autobiography. So he went back to his old line drives.Had Wallace swallowed his macho, gone underhand last season in Detroit and shot only 20% percentage points better, he'd have made 60 more foul shots. Sixty more points might have made the difference in a lot of games, especially because Detroit could have kept him in at the end of a lot more close ones.I reached out to the chronic clankers -- Shaq, Wallace, Bruce Bowen (55.0% this season), Emeka Okafor (51.2) Brendan Haywood (42.6) and Tyson Chandler (whose 32.4% threatens the alltime mark) -- and asked the simple question: "What would it take to get you to shoot free throws like Rick Barry?" Not one called me back. Or e-mailed. Or texted. Or had their p.r. guys call me back. Zero. None.Do you know why? Because NBA players care more about looking cool on SportsCenter than winning games for their teams.Sissies.Issue date: December 11, 2006
:worthy: GREAT article, and so true. Would it look ugly? Yes. Would people make jokes and laugh? Yes. Would the players get bashed for being horrible free throw shooters? No. These guys, Shaq and Ben especially, should look into this. They never will, especially Shaq because he's so ignorant about it, but they should. Shaq thinks it's a disgrace that Barry shot them like that, but I think it's a disgrace that he gets $20M a year and is a HORRIBLE free throw shooter.
If I were a bad free throw shooter I'd ask him to help me.So many games are decided over free throws.
man how does it shoot it like that though? everytime I try to do it, one of my hands takes over more causing the ball to go to the left or right. maybe I need to watch him shoot it more, imi a pretty good free throw shooter but I could be better
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Do you know why? Because NBA players care more about looking cool on SportsCenter than winning games for their teams.Sissies.</div> Great article, the quote above is so true.
Great article. Think, if some players Free Throw percentages were just 80% they might be alot higher on the all-time scorers list.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (L_C @ Dec 10 2006, 11:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Great article. Think, if some players Free Throw percentages were just 80% they might be alot higher on the all-time scorers list.</div>If Shaq could shoot even 70% his scoring numbers would be out of this world. He would hold a few highest scoring game records. Shaq is the all time leader in Free Throws made, If shot 70%... Wow.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BALLAHOLLIC? @ Dec 10 2006, 12:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>If Shaq could shoot even 70% his scoring numbers would be even more mind blowing then what they are right now. Shaq is the all time leader in Free Throws made, If shot 70%... Wow.</div> If he shot 70% teams wouldn't foul him as much.
I don't know about you guys, But if my coach told me shooting free throws with my pants down would help my team win games, I would do it without hesitation. Whatever it takes to win is what I would do. I wish these players would realize that.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>If he shot 70% teams wouldn't foul him as much.</div>If teams wouldn't foul him as much he would have more chances to score the basketball. In his prime he would get fouled almost every time he touched the ball in the 4th quarter, If he shot a high percentage teams wouldn't foul him but he would still score more points because he would have more shot attempts.It works out well for him either way.
Rick Reilly is a great writer. Another great article here. I can see why players don't want to shoot underhanded free throws though. It looks bad, and they dont want to ruin their images..
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CB4AllStar @ Dec 10 2006, 12:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Rick Reilly is a great writer. Another great article here. I can see why players don't want to shoot underhanded free throws though. It looks bad, and they dont want to ruin their images..</div>Didn't shaq shoot underhand in an all-star game last year? He's got a point, that would ruin shaq's image...
this article is so true. some dudes just care about getting their $5mil paycheck. but hell, I wouldn't wanna shoot underhand either.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (L_C @ Dec 10 2006, 12:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Didn't shaq shoot underhand in an all-star game last year? He's got a point, that would ruin shaq's image...</div>Yeah Shaq shot a free throw underhand to show off/ be goofy. He was doing it to be funny.
Ok, that's great that Barry shot 90% on underhand shotsBut that's one dudeWhat about the top two free throw shooters in NBA history?What about Dr. Tom AmberryWhat about every great college free throw shooter?What about 24 out of the top 25 free throw shooters ever?And most importantly, in 1946, most players shot underhanded. the league shot 10% worse than it does now from the line.Rick Barry was a great shooter. He would have been a great shooter had he shot hook shots from the foul line.Another thing to consider is that when you shoot your free throws underhand you don't improve your other shotsSo 1000 free throws shot by ray allen improve his game exponentially more than 1000 free throws shot by Rick Barry.Why does nobody say "Peja is the only guy to shoot X percentages for X seasons in a row, we should shoot his jankity form"Because it doesn't look as weird, even though it's as alternativeJust because one guy did well that way doesn't mean it's the only way. One data point doesn't make a graph. If P then Q doesn't imply if Q then P.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Dec 10 2006, 05:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Ok, that's great that Barry shot 90% on underhand shotsBut that's one dudeWhat about the top two free throw shooters in NBA history?What about Dr. Tom AmberryWhat about every great college free throw shooter?What about 24 out of the top 25 free throw shooters ever?And most importantly, in 1946, most players shot underhanded. the league shot 10% worse than it does now from the line.Rick Barry was a great shooter. He would have been a great shooter had he shot hook shots from the foul line.Another thing to consider is that when you shoot your free throws underhand you don't improve your other shotsSo 1000 free throws shot by ray allen improve his game exponentially more than 1000 free throws shot by Rick Barry.Why does nobody say "Peja is the only guy to shoot X percentages for X seasons in a row, we should shoot his jankity form"Because it doesn't look as weird, even though it's as alternativeJust because one guy did well that way doesn't mean it's the only way. One data point doesn't make a graph. If P then Q doesn't imply if Q then P.</div>Did you read the article? Barry's 90 percent is 2nd all-time in the NBA. I don't see where you're going with this either...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CB4AllStar @ Dec 10 2006, 01:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Did you read the article? Barry's 90 percent is 2nd all-time in the NBA. I don't see where you're going with this either...</div>the NBA scammed Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf out of the #1 spot. They despised him, and forced him out of the league when he was about 50 attempts away from the minimum number of attemptsAnd I don't think you read my post if you don't see where I'm going with it
