TAMPA — Canyon Barry stood at the free-throw line of a high school basketball game, held the ball below his waist, cocked his wrists downward, bent his knees and shot the ball. Swish.
2 Weeks Ago
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He did the same routine for the second free throw, making it as well. While Barry ran down the court, one of the refs, incredulous that someone shot free throws underhanded, asked him, "Who do you think you are, Rick Barry’s son?"
"Actually, I am, and he’s sitting up there," said Barry, pointing to his father.
Of the hundreds of Division I-A college basketball and NBA players across the country, only two are known to shoot free throws underhanded. One of them is Chinanu Onuaku of the Houston Rockets, whose unlikely method trended on social media. In college basketball, it’s Barry for the suddenly hot Florida Gators (19-5).
It has been well chronicled that shooting free throws underhanded can yield better results. But almost no one does it.
Shooting is about four things: arc, rotation, touch and direction. The best shooters always shoot the ball straight, with a soft touch, a lot of rotation and plenty of arc. But mastering all four can be difficult. Add that overhand shooting is very mechanical, and it’s no surprise that some star basketball players shoot below 50 percent.
Underhanded shooting is simpler. Players shoot from below the waist and throw the ball up at the rim, automatically adding arc. It’s easier to have backspin. It’s a softer shot. And with two hands, players can better control the direction of the shot.
Wilt Chamberlain, a career 51 percent free-throw shooter, tried it for a season, improved his free-throw shooting by 10 percent, then went back to shooting overhand because, as he later wrote in his biography, "I felt like a sissy."
Rick Barry — who shot free throws underhanded and was a career 90 percent free-throw shooter, the fourth greatest in NBA history — tried getting Shaquille O’Neal to switch. But the former Laker said in a radio interview that he "would rather shoot negative 30 percent before he shot underhand."
Those reactions are almost universal.
"It looks weird," said Tampa Catholic freshman Alijah Harrison, who is shooting 48 percent from the line this year for the 20-5 Crusaders, who play Berkeley Prep on Friday in a Class 5A, District 9 final.
Image has always been a big part of sports. Sometimes doing what’s cool wins out over what’s right.
"But what’s your image if you’re shooting 40 percent from the free-throw line?" Rick Barry asked in a recent phone interview.
So only one player in the NBA shoots underhanded. Only one in major D-I basketball. What about high school basketball in Tampa Bay? Not one prep player, no matter how poor his free-throw percentage.
"I think if high school kids maybe saw five or six or even some guys in the NBA that shot underhand and they read, ‘Oh he used to shoot 50 percent, now he’s at 70 percent by going to the underhand,’ it would have maybe more of a thinking of, ‘Let me try that,’ " Tampa Catholic coach Don Dziagwa said. "But high school kids that are bad shooters, they don’t even think about trying to shoot underhand."
But would high school players really not consider it? Even though that shot was used with success by the fourth greatest free-throw shooter in NBA history?
The stigma that it’s not a masculine way to shoot is still prevalent. But it shouldn’t matter.
"If it’s a sissy shot then it’s a sissy shot; it doesn’t make a difference as long as the ball is going in," Harrison said.
Another reason it’s not widespread is that almost no one knows how to teach it properly. It’s not like Rick and Canyon Barry are available to every poor free throw shooter in the country. So players basically have to learn it themselves.
Canyon Barry, by the way, hasn’t missed a free throw in eight games (34-of-34) and is shooting 90 percent for the season. Swish.
Harrison said he would consider switching to underhand, but only if he finished the season shooting below 25 percent from the line.
And he wouldn’t care how it looked.
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