Son pays Barry underhanded compliment
It isn’t sexy, but it works. That is what NBA Hall of Famer and Warriors great Rick Barry says while shooting his trademark underhanded free throws on an insurance company commercial that is airing this month during March Madness. It is the same thing he tells basketball players who struggle at the freethrow line but refuse to adopt his unorthodox “Granny-style” motion because they think it doesn’t look cool.
Former Heat star Shaquille O’Neal, one of the worst freethrow shooters in NBA history, said in his Hall of Fame speech that Barry once visited him at LSU and tried to persuade him to shoot free throws underhanded. His reply? “Nah, Rick, I can’t do it. I’d rather shoot zero percent than shoot underhanded. Too cool for that.”
Barry, who shot 90 percent from the line during his NBA career, is baffled by that mentality.
“It’s just amazing to me to have an aversion to doing something just because it’s different,” Barry said by phone from Gainesville, Fla., where he spent the winter to watch his youngest son, Canyon, play — and shoot underhanded free throws — for the University of Florida.
“When I was a kid, underhanded is how girls shot, so I did endure a lot of teasing, but it’s different now,” the elder Barry said. “Free throws are the only part of basketball where you can be completely selfish and help your team. Why wouldn’t you want to shoot at the highest percentage possible? Why would you rather people make fun of you for being a poor free-throw shooter? Why would you want to be such a liability at the end of the game that coaches take you out? I don’t understand it.”
Detroit Piston Andre Drummond has the lowest career free-throw percentage in the NBA (38 percent) and is one of only five players in league history who shot more than 150 free throws in a season and made 38 percent or less. The others are Wilt Chamberlain, Ben Wallace, Brendan Haywood and Chris Dudley.
When fans and media members suggested he adopt Granny-style shots a few years ago, Drummond tweeted: “Let me make this clear. … I’m not shooting free throws underhand.”
One player who did decide to adopt Barry’s style is Canyon, a fifth-year senior working on his master’s in nuclear engineering at Florida after transferring from College of Charleston. The youngest of the four Barry sons shot 88 percent from the free-throw line this season and set a school record during the season with 42 consecutive free throws.
The rest of the Florida team is collectively shooting 69.7 percent from the line. No other high-profile college player shoots underhanded, and the only player doing it in the NBA is Houston Rockets rookie Chinanu Onuaku, who was so upset with his 46.7 percent free-throw shooting percentage at Louisville that he changed to underhanded and improved to 59 percent.
Rick Barry learned the unorthodox shooting style from his father, and he, in turn, passed down the family trick to his sons. Canyon is the only one who decided to use it all the time.
The younger Barry is used to being heckled for his underhanded free throws, and sometimes he even chuckles when fans poke fun at him.
“I think the funniest time was in high school,” Canyon Barry said. “I missed a free throw and they started shouting, ‘You’re a-dop-ted! You’re a-dop-ted!” That was actually a pretty funny one. I have to give them some credit for that. I think that’s part of the fun.”
After he made a pair of free throws underhanded earlier in his career, a referee called out to him and said: “Who do you think you are? Rick Barry’s son?” Canyon responded with “Actually, I am. He’s sitting right there.”
The free throw is a simple 15-foot uncontested shot that should be a piece of cake for college and professional players. The average NBA player shoots them at a 70 percent rate. Ray Allen, Steve Nash and Reggie Miller were among the best, shooting nearly 90 percent. They all shot the traditional overhand style.
The Miami Heat have the lowest free-throw shooting percentage (70.2) of the 30 teams in the league. Coach Erik Spoelstra said it would be unrealistic to think his players could all of a sudden switch to the underhanded form.
“I think you’d need Rick Barry on staff to be able to teach that,” Spoelstra said. “It’s different and the most important thing is a routine and repeatability. Is there a motion that can be simple and repeatable? That would build confidence, and ultimately, efficiency.”
University of Miami coach Jim Larranaga agrees.
Larranaga, who starred at Providence College a few years after Barry was at UM, was an 80 percent free-throw shooter in college. He has continued to practice free throws almost every day of his 40-year coaching career. His Hurricanes players are required to shoot 25 free throws at every practice, and there is a ladder game in which they compete against each other.
Larranaga joins the contest and says, “I have not made fewer than 22 out of 25 on any day. I’ve had days where I’ve made all 25. I’ve had days I made 24. And 23. But never less than 22.”
He says the secret is not whether you shoot underhand or overhand. He says the secret is a lot of repetition in practice.
“Rick Barry perfected the underhanded shot; so, he has a system and believes in it wholeheartedly because it’s the way he shot his free throws, and to this day he can probably make 90 of 100. I learned overhand, and I can still make 90 out of 100 at my age.”
Barry insists the underhanded shot, technically, is a higher-percentage shot because it is a softer shot with a high arc, less likely to clank off the rim. Also, he says, it is a fluid motion, “not so many moving parts and variables.” His son agrees. “From a science background, because I’m a math and science guy, there’s less moving hinge joints (with underhanded shots),” Canyon Barry said. “With overhand, you have your shoulder, your elbow and your wrist having to move in conjunction. With underhand, you’re only pivoting the shoulders, so it’s more of a repeatable motion. Also, I think it’s a softer shot, right over the front of the rim.”
Dr. Larry Silverberg and Dr. Chau Tran, a pair of engineering professors at North Carolina State, did an extensive study on the physics of the free throw using hundreds of thousands of computer simulations. They focused mainly on the trajectory of the ball, concluding that the higher the arc, the better chance the ball has of going in because the target is bigger if the ball is falling straight down into the hoop rather than at an angle.
Larrañaga contends a player can get as high an arc underhanded or overhanded.
“The angle the ball approaches the rim is determined by how high you shoot it, and you can shoot it all different heights whether you’re shooting overhand or underhand,” he said “It has to do with the arc, and underhanded doesn’t provide you any better arc unless you practice it correctly and develop the habit, just like an overhand shot.”
He pointed out that Steph Curry shoots with a higher arc than any player in the NBA.
Asked why more players don’t switch to underhanded free throws, Canyon Barry said: “I’m not sure if it’s ego, pride, if they think it looks like a girly shot or a sissy shot. It could be they don’t have the coaching or the technique. There’s obviously not that many people out there — just my dad and I and my brothers — who really know the technique and what it takes to be successful.”
“It’s just amazing to me to have an aversion to doing something just because it’s different.” Rick Barry