Incredible Stories of Courage in Sports by Brad Herzog

Author:Brad Herzog
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781575425054
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Published: 2014-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

BASKETBALL

FREE SPIRIT

1960s and 1970s • UNITED STATES

“Failure is unimportant,” the great silent-film actor Charlie Chaplin once said. “It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” Chaplin did often make himself look silly. But he was also one of the best ever at what he did. He was a comedian who loved to make people laugh. You could say the same thing about Hall of Fame basketball player Rick Barry. Except Barry didn’t really care whether people laughed at him.

Barry was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was an all-star 12 times. He averaged 24.8 points per game and won many big awards. But he was especially famous for his free throw shooting. When he retired, he was the all-time leader in the category. During his career, he made nearly 90 percent of his free throw shots.

Every time Barry stood at the foul line, he followed exactly the same pattern. First, he got his feet into a comfortable position. Then he bent low and bounced the ball three times. Not once. Not twice. Repetition, he always said, was the key. “It’s the same way, time after time after time, so it’s something that gets embedded in your mind,” he explained. So far, his routine wasn’t very unusual. But the next part was. He let his arms hang down to his waist. And then he tossed the ball underhanded toward the basket.

“Granny style” is what people called it, and it didn’t look all that cool. Still, it worked for Barry. Another top player, Wilt Chamberlain, tried it once. He averaged more than 30 points per game in his career. Yet he made barely half of his foul shots. His free throw shooting was so bad that he gave Barry’s method a chance. But he soon stopped. His reason? “I felt silly.”

Barry felt the same way when he was younger. His father coached a semi-pro basketball team. He always tried to get his son to shoot the ball underhanded. That’s how most players had done it in basketball’s early days. But Barry refused at first. He was afraid people would make fun of him during games. “See, that’s the problem,” said Al Attles, who later coached Barry in the NBA. “If you worry about what people feel or think, you’re going to have a problem. You have to do whatever is the best way to make the ball go in the basket.”

Still, it takes courage to risk being mocked. Finally, as a high school junior, Barry decided to test out the underhanded style. During a road game he shot his first free throws this way. Sure enough, someone in the crowd taunted him. But then Barry heard another man in the crowd say, “What are you making fun of him for? He doesn’t miss.” Soon, Barry was shooting only underhanded free throws. “It’s the first time I ever shot 80 percent,” he said. “Then I just kept getting better.”

Barry’s goal was to relax as much as possible at the line.

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