Rick Barry (90% career FT shooter) on why no one tries his underhand free-throw technique: “I just don’t understand it, it’s a strange mystery to me. Shaq told me he’s a hip hop guy, and it’b be bad for his image.”
by WhenMachinesCry
@National Basketball Association
33 Comments
[Clip of Barry’s free throws during a game](https://streamable.com/5ifgnj)
We all know why and it’s because of ego and the public perception of underhanded shooting
Mitchell Robinson meet Rick Barry
“You have other guys shooting 40, 50 percent. I don’t know how you live with yourself doin’ that.”
Lmao
A lot of nba players would rather miss free throws over taking the slight ego hit of shooting underhand.
If big men who struggle at the line would just shoot underhand, it completely changes a defender’s willingness to foul them, assuming that the underhanded shot results in a dependable free throw.
In the Shaq example, I think his ego would have survived considering he could have averaged like 35ppg in the playoffs during the Laker’s 3peat if he had an 80% FT.
Maybe for big men I could get it, but I can’t imagine it’s very smart for a player to have a FT shot that’s completely different from their jumper or regular shot. Seems like it could mess with the consistency of your shooting form. With that being said I’m sure there are plenty of guys who have done it.
And some of the bad ones have garbage ass ft form anyway. You don’t look cool, and you’re hurting the team. Smh
Maybe some did try it and it didn’t work in practice? Shooting a free throw the regular way isn’t hard either, but some players can’t do that. There’s no guarantee the underhand method will work either.
From a physics perspective, underhanded is the optimal way to shoot free throws. If you wanted Shaq to shoot under hand, they should’ve started by teaching him physics
Lmao he just took a 💩on these guys.
But he’s right. Guys care a lot about their brand. They aren’t going to sacrifice that for winning.
Lmao nothing says a gangster hip hop guy like you taking 10 seconds to throw up the ugliest FT imaginable just to clank it at 50% 😤
Everyone knows how great of a free throw shooter Rick Barry was, but I feel like he’s still under appreciated as a player.
Only guy to lead college basketball, the NBA, and the ABA in scoring. Career average of 36.3 points per game in the finals, which is the highest ever
Shows how much being considered a raging asshole can impact your reputation
Ben Simmons has left the chat.
give sochan his props, people made fun of the one-handed form but the results are there
The thing is, anybody but Rick Barry might have gotten some proteges because underhand makes a lot of sense to try if you’re terrible at shooting normal freethrows, but literally everyone agrees that Rick Barry is a huge asshole so no one wants to learn from him.
Sochan out here pop-a-shotting his way to a respectable percentage
Y’all got millions on the line lmao. These mofos stupid
Seen how Shaq has proven his weak personality over and over that’s actually a pretty probable reason
I think Wilt said something similar although obviously without the hip Hop aspect lol, in the case of Shaq, I remember him saying he felt some kind of professional jealousy when LeBron broke the scoring record, think about how many points Shaq cost himself by not being a better free throw shooter, oh well
It’s not just “image” or “looking cool”.
Shooting free throws gets or keeps you in rhythm for field goal shots.
I agree if someone is shooting 50% they should probably shoot underhand, but for majority of the players they should be using free throws as practice shots for their next FG opportunity. There’s a reason why role players often comment about how difficult it is to come in ice cold not having touched the ball for 30 mins and then be expected to hit a 3.
Heck, these guys are so desperate to get any sort of feel for the ball you can see them grabbing the ball right after someone else makes a free throw.
its just ego and conforming to the arbitrary consensus about the way the game “should be played”.
well i guess shaq does have a point about his image being impacted but that only applies to like the top 20 stars in the league. someone like andre drummond’s brand value is not gonna be impacted in the least if he switches to underhand. in fact the memes and notoriety would probably benefit them.
Guys this is bullshit – under or over handed Tifk Barry was hitting those percentages due to shooting skill. He’s a damn good shooter either way.
That being said, with how dismal these bigs were at shooting over handed, it would have been worth a try
Not all players are willing to do everything it takes to win
Relevant podcast episode:
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-big-man-cant-shoot
Pablo Torre did a segment on this, something along the lines of athletes would rather work harder than look stupid. I think he cited the Korean or Chinese basketball league has an average of 80% free throw mades as a whole cause players use the backboard and bank their shots in.
It’s not just that. A free throw is a quick way to get off tilt, get back in the game, see the ball go through the net. If you don’t shoot underhand with all of your shots, your missing out on the opportunity to get your shot back. Anyone who has ever played ball knows exactly what I mean. You swish 1 or 2 free throws and your shots start hitting. Throw that shit underhand, not gonna happen. The muscle memory plays a huge part here.
My best guess is you have these shooting mechanics for every other shot and it would mess with your other shots too much to do this at the line even if its better.
It’s actually is crazy because for some players, it would be the difference between having a roster spot and not having one.
There are always a handful of guys who are 6’10″+ and athletic but not super skilled and cant shoot. If one of those dudes was making 85% of his free throws he’d be the one who would definitely make it another year.
Udonis Haslem literally ate one turkey sandwich per day (with one slice of turkey) for 2 years in order to slim down to make it to the NBA. But nobody’s willing to shoot underhand smh.
Shaq probably could’ve won a ring with the Suns if he used Barry’s form
Are you listening MITCH
It’s not a secret a lot of NBA players care about their image and it’s important to them and their brand, that’s why they do the walk off the bus through the tunnel with their best drip
If guys in the NBA could shoot 95% from the field but had to moan like Maria Sharapova playing tennis they’d take their 45% from the field lmao
It reminds me of counter strike. There’s was this AR which was really strong be nobody wanted to use it because it had a scope and it was like we’re not COD players, we don’t use scopes on AR, so basically nobody knew it was powerful. Then they lowered the price, people strated using it and realized is was very powerful… the egos makes people worst
This is proof trying to be cool is lame. let’s say you’re shooting 40% and are getting fouled a normal amount meaning you’re at the line a normal amount. BUT you only score like 8 points a game
If you just did what Rick Berry was saying you’d make SO much more money in the nba. On average an ok player like this goes to the line 2 to 3 times a game maybe more.
But still that’s on average another 3.6 to 5.4 points. At 90% shooting
Meaning you’d go from a 8 point per game scored to a 12 to 13 point per game scorer. Even if you shoot 80% why wouldn’t you do it?
Yeah it looks lame but you know what’s cool? Money cause you’d make more if you scored more points.
Edit: also If a really good team but not great team made all of its bad free throw shooters do it this way they might win a championship lol.
“You’d rather look good and lose than look bad and win”
~Billy Hoyle