How to shoot a basketball father

How to Develop Long Distance Basketball Shooting Range

By Jeff Haefner

Would you like to make MORE shots from farther back? Would you like to become a great 3-point shooter?

We have some very effective shooting tips for you...

When extending your range, you need to know about some surefire RIGHT and WRONG ways to get it done.

You need to be very careful because all too often players will try to extend their range and acquire some subtle, yet dead-serious shooting flaws!!

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The trick is to extend your range while maintaining the EXACT SAME FORM.
There are only TWO ways to increase your range:

1. INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH AND POWER.
2. ADJUST YOUR SHOT MECHANICS FOR ADDITIONAL POWER.

With that said, we'll teach you exactly how to increase your range both ways. It's up to you to decide which method you choose.

Many times, it's best for players to make very small improvements in both areas.

How to increase your physical strength and power for increased range.

The most obvious answer is to start a weight training program. Increasing the strength of your entire body will help. You'll want stronger and more explosive legs, core, wrist, forearms, and triceps.

In addition, by simply practicing more, you will increase the strength of your wrists and forearms. Taking 500 shots a day will increase your strength.

Lastly, you can try using a heavy ball (twice the weight of a regulation ball) and then going back to the regulation size one. Players usually find it easy to shoot from farther out because of the contrast. Wait until at least junior high before working with an oversized or weighted ball.

If you use a weighted ball, be sure to practice away from the basket. Do form shooting with one hand. Put your guide hand in the normal position, but an inch off the ball so you're not touching it. Focus on shooting the ball high and far, but do not sacrifice good form in order to do so.

How to adjust your mechanics for additional power.

This can be tricky because changing your mechanics can throw off your shot. Big changes to your mechanics will require you to retrain your muscle memory and you'll need thousands of repetitions to retrain your muscle memory.

In most situations, it's best to make very minor adjustments to your shot delivery.

ADJUSTMENT TECHNIQUE #1 A good technique for developing range is to intentionally shoot the ball all the way over the backboard. This kind of power is achieved through using optimum leg power and releasing the ball a split second before reaching the top of the jump motion. If done properly, then generating enough force to shoot over the backboard, even from beyond the 3-point line, is not that difficult. Once players realize how much power is available through this motion, they can learn to control it for shooting at the rim. Since this takes less force than shooting over the backboard, players have more confidence shooting from long ranges. It's important to shoot a split second BEFORE you release the top of your shot. You'll lose tremendous power if you jump, hang, and shoot on the way down. Plus, you just give your defender more time to block your shot. ADJUSTMENT TECHNIQUE #2 Another effective technique is to drop your elbow. If you watch Steve Nash you'll notice that he drops his elbow when shooting three pointers. If you're going to adjust mechanics, this is a good option to consider because it doesn't alter your delivery mechanics too dramatically. ADJUSTMENT TECHNIQUE #3 Yet another technique to consider is to try to decrease the time that it takes to get the ball from your shot chamber to your release point. This will add power to your shot and increase your range.

The safest way to increase shooting range

If you want to take the safest route, here's a surefire way to extend your range without sacrificing your accuracy.

Let's say you are proficient at mid-range but you want to become a great 3-point shooter...

The obvious answer is to practice. The question becomes what to practice. Shooting revolves around rhythm and form, so that is where the answer lies.

It might sound strange, but to become a better 3-point shooter, you have to practice a lot, close to the basket. Take 100's and 1000's of shots 12' from the basket. The purpose for this is to really ingrain your shooting form from an area that you can shoot comfortably and have some success. It doesn't make a difference what drills you do or how you practice it, as long as the primary thrust of the work is your form.

Once you have your form ingrained, gradually move back. If you get to a point where you feel the rhythm change or your form start to change, that is the limit of your range. Stay at that spot until your shot feels like it did at 12 feet. Once it feels comfortable again, shoot several hundred shots until it becomes automatic again.

Once it feels automatic again, start to move back until you reach the limit of your range and shoot continually from that spot. Once you feel comfortable from behind the 3-point line, you can start shooting drills that will make you more proficient.

Players struggle from behind the arc because they have to change their shot to get the ball to the basket. This not only makes the shooter inconsistent from the 3-point line, but it affects his shot from everywhere else. Remember, to be a good shooter, you have to take the same shot every time, no matter where you shoot the ball.

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How to Shoot a Basketball Perfectly (10-Step Guide)

Every young basketball player grows up wanting to learn how to shoot a basketball at a world-class level.

This is obvious to anyone who steps foot into a gym.

The first thing you'll look around and see are players as young as 5-years-old throwing up shots from behind the three-point line.

With the rise of players like Steph Curry and Damian Lillard, as well as the game of basketball developing to take more advantage of the three-point shot, learning how to shoot a basketball at a high level has never been more important.

There's only one issue with this...

Becoming a great shooter isn't an easy thing to do!

When I was a lot younger, I remember spending hundreds of hours in the backyard of our family home trying to perfect my shooting form.

I would sit in front of the TV and memorize the shooting techniques of my favorite player and then sprint outside and try to recreate it.

I would watch instructional shooting videos trying to diagnose the problems with my jump shot and then fix them.

Over time, I was able to improve a lot.

But as I started getting older and playing for different coaches, I kept running into obstacles in regards to my basketball shooting form...

Every coach wanted me to shoot the basketball a different way!

• Some coaches wanted me to dip the basketball. Some didn't.
• Some coaches wanted me to focus on the front of the rim. Some didn't.
• Some coaches wanted me to completely face the rim. Some didn't.

As soon as I'd become comfortable with one variation, another coach would step in and demand I change it.

It's nearly impossible to become a consistently good shooter when you're constantly making these changes.

And that's why I created this 10-step guide...

My goal with this article is to clear up all confusion when it comes to learning how to shoot a basketball at a high level.

I'm going to give you detailed, step-by-step instructions on exactly how players should be shooting the basketball.

This article will be broken up into 9 sections...

Quick Navigation

3 Important Shooting Facts

The BEEF Method (and who shouldn't use it)

How to Shoot a Basketball Perfectly in 10 Steps

Why Becoming a Great Shooter is Important

5 Basketball Shooting Form Mistakes (and how to fix them)

3 Basketball Shooting Drills For Perfect Form

6 Common Shooting Technique Questions

11 Basketball Shooting Tips

A Special Note for Basketball Coaches...

Conclusion

3 Important Shooting Facts

Before we get into the details on exactly how to shoot a basketball, there are three important things I want you to always keep in mind...

Fact #1 - Shooting is the Most Important Skill in Basketball

Let's not kid ourselves...

There is no skill more important in the game of basketball than shooting.

• Rebounding isn't more important.
• Footwork isn't more important.
• Passing isn't more important.

All those skills are still important, sure... but they're not as important as being able to shoot the basketball at a high level.

The sooner we can all admit this, the sooner we'll start creating better shooters at all levels of basketball.

Being a great shooter will result in not only more points for yourself, but more points for your teammates, too (we'll talk more about this later).

Fact #2 - Shooters are NOT born. They ARE developed

Not a single person on Earth was born with the ability to shoot a basketball at a high level.

• Not Steph Curry.
• Not Ray Allen.
• Not Reggie Miller.
• Not Kevin Durant.

All of these players began their lives with the same shooting ability as you, me, and all others players did…None.

"So, what separates them from the rest of us?"

They became some of the greatest shooters to ever step foot on a basketball court through hours and hours and hours of smart shooting repetitions in the gym.

Any basketball player who wants to become a great shooter one day must be willing to put in years of hard work to develop a great shot.

Fact #3 - There Are Very Few Players Willing to Put in the Work Required to Become a Great Shooter

I've been around the game of basketball for many years...

During all that time, I've seen very few truly great shooters.

"Why is that?"

Because 99.999% of players aren't willing to put in the work to become great.

But don't worry...

This is a good thing for you!

If you are one of the select few who is willing to put in the work (and I hope you are), then with a lot of hard work and dedication you can become one of the very few great shooters we have in the game today.

Now, let's get started!

The BEEF Method (and who shouldn't use it)

When kids first start learning how to shoot, one of the first acronyms a coach will teach them is the BEEF shooting method.

This is a super simple teaching tool created to help kids focus on four important aspects of shooting a basketball.

Here's what the acronym stands for...

• (B) - Balance
• (E) - Elbow
• (E) - Eyes
• (F) - Follow-Through

Simple, right?

To be clear, I do believe all of these points are important...

The problem with the BEEF method is that it's too simple.

Can it be used to teach absolute beginners or young athletes learning how to shoot a basketball for the first time?

Sure.

But once a player has learned the basics, it's time to move on to something more advanced.

I still see way too many coaches using the simple BEEF method with older and more experienced players.

We're letting the players down if our shooting advice doesn't get more advanced as they improve.

Let's go through the more advanced method I recommend...

How to Shoot a Basketball Perfectly in 10 Steps

Step #1 - Shot Preparation

Being a great shooter starts before you receive the basketball.

This step is often overlooked by most players and coaches but can be the difference between having enough time to take a good shot or getting your shot blocked by a defender closing out.

"You don't shoot fast. You get ready to shoot fast" - Don Meyer

Here are the three rules to make sure you're prepared to shoot when you catch the basketball...

a. Start with your knees and hips slightly bent

If you catch the basketball with straight legs, it will take extra time to bend your legs before raising up for your shot.

This is too slow.

b. Show target hands

Showing target hands to the player with the basketball shows them exactly where to pass to your shot pocket (we'll talk about this later).

c. Be mentally prepared to shoot

You'll never be more open than when you first catch the basketball.

As long as you're within your comfortable shooting range, you must be mentally prepared to shoot on the catch.

Step #2 - Hand Placement on the Ball

Upon catching the basketball or raising up into a shot, players must be able to quickly adjust their hands to the correct positions on the basketball.

The shooting hand must be under/behind the basketball and the balance hand should be on the side of the basketball.

The thumb of your shooting hand and the base of the thumb on your balance hand should form a 'T' (as pictured).

All finger pads and hand pads should be touching the basketball.

The only area of your shooting hand not touching the basketball is the small gap in the middle of your hand.

Another important but overlooked detail is that the fingers should be spread comfortably wide on the basketball.

These adjustments must happen immediately upon receiving the basketball.

Step #3 - Balanced Base

"The key to being a good shooter is balance. Everything follows balance" - Larry Bird

Most players and coaches believe that shooting success is mostly to do with the movements of the upper body...

This is far from the truth. Great shooting always starts with the base.

If a player can't get the base of their shot correct, then it's very hard to become a consistent shooter.

A balanced base involves three important factors...

a. Feet slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart

If your feet are too narrow, it's very difficult to stay on balance when raising up for the shot.

If your feet are too wide, you won't get enough lift in your shot.

(Have a photo showing too close, perfect, too wide.)

b. Dominant foot slightly in front

When combined with the next step (the turn), this will improve the balance of your shot and release tension in your shoulder.

For right-handed shooters, this means sliding the right foot forward slightly. The opposite for left-handed shooters.

c. Weight equally distributed on each foot

For obvious reasons, a player should not be leaning to either side when taking a shot.

Your weight should be equally distributed on both feet.

Step #4 - Feet Direction (The Turn)

I could have included this in the 'balanced base' section above, but I feel that this is so important it deserved its own step.

When shooting the basketball, a player's feet should be turned slightly.

For right-handed shooters, their feet should be turned slightly to the left (11 o'clock).

For left-handed shooters, their feet should be turned slightly to the right (1 o'clock).

To understand why this is important, stand at the free-throw line with all 10 toes pointing towards the rim.

If you attempt to keep your elbow lined up with the rim while shooting with this base, you'll notice that tension is required in the chest.

To relieve the body of this tension, players should turn their feet slightly which will allow their elbow and shoulder to line up with the rim more comfortably.

Step #5 - Consistent Shot Pocket

The 'shot pocket' is the area a player is most comfortable starting the basketball from when beginning their shot.

This will usually be around the lower chest or stomach area of a player and will either be usually be in the middle of their body or slightly to the shooting hand side.

All players must find what feels comfortable for them.

Each time a player catches the basketball to shoot, they should be bringing the basketball back to their shot pocket before raising up into their shot.

There are two main reasons for this. ..

1. Keeping a consistent shot pocket ensures players are shooting the basketball the same way every time they shoot.
2. Since the shot pocket is often low, this will give player much better rhythm as they go up for their shot.

Will there be time when players don't have time to return the basketball to their shot pocket? Sure...

But they'll shoot better when they do.

Step #6 - Eyes on the Target

A while ago I asked 15 shooting coaches which part of the rim they encouraged players to focus on when shooting.

The answers were surprising...

Many of the shooting coaches were teaching their players to aim for different targets on the rim... Yet all of them were able to develop great shooters.

"What does this tell us?"

There isn't one 'correct' target to focus on when shooting.

Players have a number of options...

• The center of the front of the rim.
• The center of the back of the rim.
• The first loop in the net.
• The entire hoop.
• etc.

Whichever target you decide to use, this is the most important thing you must keep in mind at all times...

Once you find a target you're comfortable with, be consistent.

'Front-rim shooters' and 'back-rim shooters' are focusing on targets which are 17 inches (45cm) apart aiming to achieve the same goal.

If you're constantly changing the target you're aiming at, it's nearly impossible for you to become a consistent shooter.

You have to pick one and then allow your shot to develop using that target.

Step #7 - Wrinkle the Wrist

Shooting with a straight wrist is another one of the most common problems for youth players.

Players who do this will often push the basketball towards the rim (flat shot) instead of shooting the basketball up and through the rim.

Fortunately, it's a simple fix with a visual cue.

The aim of this step is to get the wrist of the shooting hand bent back as far as possible (usually a little before 90 degrees).

This will give extra power to the shot and will also create the necessary backspin required to be a good shooter.

When bent back correctly, there will be small wrinkles in the skin on the back of the shooting wrist.

This provides a convenient visual cue for players to know if they're bending their wrist back correctly before shooting.

Step #8 - Elbow Under the Basketball

When you're raising up for the shot, the elbow of your shooting arm should be directly under the basketball.

This requires players to have their upper and lower arm forming an 'L' shape and also have their wrist bent back to 90 degrees (step 7).

Doing this will ensure that the basketball will be shot in a straight line to the rim and also have good backspin.

Players who flare their elbow out while shooting will often miss to the left or right because they're not shooting the basketball straight.

A player will often flare out their elbow when they don't turn their feet correctly (step 4).

This is because the chest requires uncomfortable tension to pull in the elbow when 10 toes are pointing towards the rim.

Step #9 - Balance Hand

The 'balance hand' is what we call the non-shooting hand.

As the name implies, its only role during the shooting motion is helping to balance the basketball on the shooting hand up until the release point.

For right-handed shooters, this is the left hand.

For left-handed shooters, this is the right hand.

If you've been around basketball long enough, you'll often hear this hand referred to as the 'guide hand'.

I don't like this terminology as this hand should never 'guide' the basketball anywhere during the shooting motion.

There should be no force from the balance hand when a shot is taken.

As the elbow starts to extend in the shooting motion, the balance hand releases flat off the side of the basketball.

If the balance hand isn't flat on release, this means that a player has pushed the basketball with their balance hand (most often with their thumb) while in the shooting motion and the shot will usually end up missing left or right.

Step #10 - Rhythm Shot + Follow Through

The final step is where it all comes together...

Shooting with rhythm involves many parts occurring simultaneously:

• The basketball is lifted up from the shot pocket.
• The knees and hips straighten out as the player raises themselves into the air for power.
• The elbow of the shooting arm straightens up in the air once the basketball has been lifted past shoulder height. (To check if you're shooting the basketball up into the air at the correct angle, make sure that the elbow of your shooting arm finishes next to your eyebrow on the follow through).
• Near the peak of the shot, the wrist is snapped in the direction of the rim so that they fingers are pointing towards the ground. This will ensure the basketball has good backspin resulting in a 'soft' shot.
• Also at the peak of the shot, the balance hand will release from the basketball keeping perfectly flat. This ensures the balance hand isn't pushing the basketball.
• The final two fingers to touch the basketball should be the index and middle fingers at the same time.
• When you return to the ground, the rhythm of your jump shot will have guided your body forward slightly of where you took off from.When practicing, I encourage players to hold this form until the basketball has hit the rim so that they can look up and evaluate their technique.

Video:

Why Becoming a Great Shooter is Important

Hesitant about whether you want to spend the hours it takes to become a great shooter?

Here's why it's important that you do...

1. Increases Your Scoring Opportunities

Being a great shooter will increase your scoring from all areas of the court.

Not only will you make more shots from the perimeter, you'll also be able to drive to the basket and score much easier than before.

"Why is this?"

When you're a great shooter, the defense is forced to defend close to you on-ball and off-ball in order to prevent you shooting an outside shot.

This gives the defender a lot less time to react to a cut to the rim or a drive to the basket if you have the basketball.

2. Increases Your Teammate's Scoring Opportunities

Great shooters don't need to touch the basketball to help their team score.

By simply being a scoring threat from the perimeter, you will help your team's offense by creating space on the floor.

Since a shooter’s defender is forced to play close to them to prevent the quick shot, it's difficult for them to play help defense on the other offensive players.

This means that there will be more space inside to finish at the rim, more open cutters, more open driving lanes, etc.

3. More Points on the Scoreboard

At the end of the day, to win more basketball games, you need to put points on the scoreboard.

And improved shooting does that!

If a player is able to make 35% of their three-point shots, they'll be more efficient than a player who makes 50% of their two-point shots.

This is the reason why we're seeing more and more teams at all levels attempt more three-point shots as players become better shooters.

4. Proves You Work on Your Game

There's one rule that will always be true when it comes to shooting...

Shooters aren't born. They're developed.

It's impossible to become a great shooter without a championship-level work ethic and dedication to improve your game.

All coaches and recruiters know this.

Being a great shooter immediately proves to all watching that you have great attention to detail, you work hard, and that you’re disciplined.

These are all traits that recruiters are on the lookout for.

5 Basketball Shooting Form Mistakes (and how to fix them)

Here are the 5 main shooting technique mistakes that I commonly see in players at all levels.

Once you understand what to look for, many of them are simple to fix.

1. Not Shooting With Enough Arc

It's incredibly difficult to become a great shooter if you have a flat shot.

The flatter your shot, the less area of the hoop the basketball has to go through the rim.

In 99% of cases, this occurs because a player pushes the basketball out towards the rim from their chest instead of shooting the basketball up into the air.

To make sure this doesn't happen, ensure players are wrinkling their wrist, have their elbow under the basketball, and their elbow finishes next to their eyebrow on the shot release.

2. Pushing With the Balance Hand Thumb

The traditional basketball shooting motion is a one-handed shot.

The balance hand stabilises the basketball until near the point of release, and then the dominant hand should be doing 100% of the shooting.

But that's not always what happens...

A lot of players fall into a bad habit of using their balance hand thumb to provide extra power on the shot.

This is necessary when a player is young and doesn't have the strength to shoot with the traditional one-handed method. Instead, they compensate for this lack of strength by shooting with two hands.

As players grow older and develop more strength, they must transition away from the two-handed shot and learn to shoot without using the thumb of their balance hand.

3. Not Dipping the Basketball

Nearly every great shooter in basketball history dips the basketball.

• Steph Curry dips.
• Ray Allen dips.
• Dirk Nowitzki dips.
• Steve Nash dips.
• Kevin Durant dips.
• You get the point...

So, why do we have so many coaches pushing players not to dip after they catch the basketball? (yes, I had this happen to me).

I have no idea.

There are three main reasons why it's important to dip the basketball...

1. To ensure a consistent starting point (shot pocket).
2. For rhythm on the shot.
3. To prevent the upper body from being too tense.

Players: Dip the basketball.

4. Encouraging Players to Follow Their Shot

'Follow your shot' is one of the worst pieces of advice a coach can give to one of their players.

Doing so will negatively affect a player's shot in two ways...

a. It will ruin their shooting technique

Due to the rhythm of a jump shot, the motion will naturally take the shooter's upper body back and their lower body forward slightly.

This moves them away from the rim.

Players will be forced to shoot with bad technique to ensure they can sprint in and challenge for the rebound.

b. It will put them in the wrong mindset

When you tell a player to follow their shot, you're telling them that they're probably going to miss.

I think we can all agree that this is a terrible mindset to have before taking a shot.

Unless you know for certain a shot is off (players can always feel the bad ones), then you should never follow your shot.

Players should be putting 100% focus into completing the full shot routine with the best form possible each time they shoot.

5. Fingers Not Spread Wide Enough

Another important teaching point is making sure that players are shooting with their fingers spread comfortably wide on the basketball.

Many young athletes will catch and shoot with their fingers too close together.

The closer the fingers are, the less control players will have when they put up a shot.

The best time to address this point is when you're practicing form shooting with your team.

Get each player to hold the basketball in their shooting pocket and check to make sure each player is spreading their fingers wide enough.

3 Basketball Shooting Drills For Perfect Form

1. Perfects

'Perfects' involve a player beginning in a stationary position with the basketball in their shot pocket and focusing solely on shooting each shot with perfect form.

The goal is to make a specific number of perfect swishes from 4 different positions in front of the rim.

For example:

• 3-feet - 10 perfect swishes.
• 5-feet - 7 perfect swishes.
• 7-feet - 5 perfect swishes.
• 10-feet (free-throws) - 5 perfect swishes.

This is a great drill to begin individual shooting workouts with.

2. Spin Outs

The 'Spin Outs' drill works on catch-and-shoot situations.

This is a great drill for practicing shooting off the 'hop' or shooting off a '1-2 step'. As I said in a previous section, I always encourage players to practice both.

The drill involves players spinning the basketball out in front of themselves, catching the basketball with a hop or 1-2 step, and then rising up into the shot with perfect form.

These can be performed from midrange or from beyond the three-point line depending on the age and skill level of the player.

3. Off-Dribble Form Shooting

The final drill allows players to practice shooting with correct form off the dribble.

This is often the most difficult shot for young players.

To perform this drill, players start several metres behind where they plan to shoot the basketball from.

From there, the player takes 2 - 3 hard dribbles and then practices pulling up for the jump shot on balance.

After each shot, the player collects their own rebound (if they don't have a rebounder), and then returns to the starting position.

The biggest focus of this drill is to stay on balance throughout the entire shot.

6 Common Shooting Technique Questions

Here are the answers to 6 of the most common basketball shooting questions I receive...

1. "Should I shoot using a hop or the 1-2?"

Players must learn how to shoot off both.

I'm 100% against any coach demanding that their players use either the hop or the 1-2 step exclusively.

There are times throughout a game where the hop is better to use and there are times throughout a game where the 1-2 step is better to use.

Eventually, players will develop a preference and I recommend allowing them to make that choice on their own.

But players must be able to shoot off both.

2. "How many shots should I make every week?"

This is how many shots I recommend you make each week depending on the level of shooter you want to become...

• Elite Shooter = 1,500 made shots per week
• Great Shooter = 1,000 made shots per week
• Poor Shooter = 500 made shots per week

This might seem like a low number to some, but I promise you if you're taking all shots from game spots at game speed it won't be easy.

With the amount of distractions we have today, it's crucial all players are scheduling time to get in the gym and work on their shot.

3. "What part of the rim should I look at when I shoot?"

There isn't a 'correct' target every player should be looking at.

Read 'Step 6' and check out this article where 18 shooting experts give their advice.

4. "Should the index or middle finger be last to touch the basketball?"

This is another one of those questions there isn't a 'correct' answer to.

I've always taught the fork (index and middle release at the same time), but there are many great shooting coaches with differing opinions.

I ran a poll on Twitter (follow me!) which received 1,115 votes and 49% of people believe the middle finger should be last to touch the basketball.

I know of very few shooting coaches who recommend this, but it shows that all finger releases should be tested by players.

I believe any of the three can work.

5. "Why is backspin so important?"

Backspin is important while shooting because it creates a 'soft' shot.

When a shot is soft (or has touch), the basketball has more chance of bouncing on the rim and then falling through the hoop.

If a shot is taken without backspin, the ball is going to hit the rim and bounce away with very little chance of a score.

6. "Which direction should my feet be pointing?"

Read 'Step 4'.

Brief answer: Feet should have a slight turn. This allows players to open up their shoulder and get their elbow under the basketball without putting tension on the chest.

11 Basketball Shooting Tips

1. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

The great shooters separate themselves from the rest of the pack by spending thousands of hours shooting focused repetitions in the gym.

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball at a high level, you must be prepared to put in the work to achieve it.

This might seem easy to commit to at first, but I promise you that there will be days when the last thing you feel like doing is going to the gym.

• Cold mornings (and even colder in the gym).
• You didn't sleep well the night before.
• You feel like having a 'lazy day' at home.

The players who can cut through the excuses and get in the gym even when they're not feeling motivated to do so are the ones who separate themselves from the competition.

It's not about the number of hours you practice, it's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice.

Kobe Bryant

2. Schedule Time for Shooting Practice

If all you do is stumble through each week and fit in shooting practice when it's convenient, I promise you that you'll never become a great shooter.

You must schedule your shooting workouts ahead of time.

Decide how many shots you want to make each week, work out roughly how long it will take, and then schedule your shooting workouts.

Once they're schedule, treat these blocks of time as non-negotiable.

• A friend calls you and wants to hang out? Sorry, you're busy.
• Feel like sleeping in late one day? Sorry, you're busy.

You must make shooting a priority.

3. Always Start Close to The Rim

It's never a good sign to see young players arrive at the gym and immediately start throwing up three-point shots.

Never underestimate the importance of starting close to the rim and making a lot of easy form shots to begin your shooting practice.

This allows you to get into a good rhythm, focus on your shooting technique, and build confidence by making shots.

Don't let your ego get in the way.

If you want to be a great shooter from 25 feet, you better be a great shooter from 4 feet first.

Steve Kerr

4. You Can't Rely on Team Practices for Shooting

Here's a little fact you probably didn't realize...

On average, a player will only shoot 25 - 30 shots in a team practice.

Doesn't sound like much, does it?

Of course, this will depend on the coach's priorities...

But with all the other skills, offenses, and defenses that need to be worked on, coaches simply don't have the time to schedule long blocks of shooting.

What does this mean?

90% of becoming a great shooter occurs outside of team practices.

You must be prepared to put in thousands of repetitions in the gym by yourself or with a teammate.

5. Always Have a Plan

If you simply go to the gym and throw up random shots while laughing with your friends, the rate at which you improve is going to be incredibly slow.

You must have a plan if you want to see quick results.

Ask yourself questions like...

• Where do most of my shots come from during games?
• At the next level where will most of my shots come from?
• What shot do I need to make consistently to become a better player?
• Which areas of the court do I struggle to make shots from?
• etc.

Once you know the answer to these, create a workout.

This will ensure you're taking game shots, from game spots, at game speed.

Then when you get in the gym, you'll know exactly what you need to do.

I hate casual shooting. Every shot is preceded by working to get open and catch and shoot under game-like conditions.

Bobby Knight

6. Track your shooting workouts

I first started advising players to start tracking their made shots after reading a terrific article on shooting coach Dave Hopla.

Dave tracks every single shot he takes… and regularly shoots 98%.

Incredible, right?

In fact, you'll find it hard to find any great shooter that doesn’t meticulously track their makes and misses when working on their shooting.

So, why don’t more youth and high school players do it?

I have absolutely no idea!

It’s an absolute must if a player plans on improving their shot.

Here are 5 quick reasons why tracking shots will make you a great shooter:

1. You cannot improve what you don't measure.
2. It makes every single shot important.
3. Players can set shooting goals and commitments.
4. Players will see improvements.
5. Players will find out their weak shooting areas.

7. Analyze Your Missed Shots

You're going to miss a lot of shots...

Hell, even the best shooters on the planet make less than half of their shots during competitive play.

If you're going to become a great shooter, you must be able to analyze your missed shots and learn from them.

Here's something I want you to keep in mind...

Great shooters miss front and back. Poor shooters miss left and right.

"Why is this?"

In most cases, when a shot is missed due to hitting the front or back of the rim, it's because the players didn't judge the distance correctly or due to fatigue in the arms and legs.

When a player misses left or right, it's often due to a shooting technique issue.

While practicing, form the habit of looking up after each shot and evaluating the placement of both of your hands.

8. Incorporate Conditioning into Your Shooting Workouts

You're going to be fatigued while you're taking shots during games.

If you want to be a great in-game shooter, it's incredibly important that you replicate this feeling during your shooting workouts.

For players wondering why they can always shoot great while chucking up shots before practice but never in games...

This is likely reason why.

Being able to shoot the ball when you've expended so much energy at the defensive end of the floor is an amazing skill.

Steve Kerr

Here are a few ways you can add conditioning to your shooting practices:

1. Run the floor

After a specific amount of made shots, sprint a full length of the floor before continuing.

Once you've completed a few up-and-backs, you'll definitely feel yourself needing to put more focus into every shot.

2. Rebound for yourself

Rebound your own shots instead of getting a parent or teammate to rebound for you.

This will add a quick sprint after every missed or made shot.

9. Work on Your Inside Game, Too!

Want to know what's better than a player who can consistently knock down an outside shot?

A player who can consistently knock down and outside shot AND finish strong at the rim.

Understand this...

When you do become a great shooter, the opposition is going to start defending you differently than your teammates.

The opposition will be forced to player closer to you, they'll jump at more of your shot fakes, and they'll fight over screens instead of slipping under them.

All of this will lead to many more drive opportunities that wouldn't usually be there for a player who struggles shooting from outside.

Make sure you're able to take advantage of these opportunities by having a great shot fake and being able to finish strong around the rim!

10. Know the Shots You Should be Taking During Games

As you move from practices to games, it's important for all players to understand which areas of the floor are good shots for them.

The unwritten rule is that a players should be able to make 6-7/10 from a spot unguarded during practice before they start taking a shot from that spot during games (HS level).

Unfortunately for some, shooting the basketball is not an equal opportunity decision.

If you can't shoot well from certain areas of the court, you don't get to take those shots.

The players who spend thousands of hours in the gym are rewarded during games by shooting more than some of their teammates.

If you want to shoot more, practice more.

Shooting percentage is just as much about decision making as it is about technique.

Jeff Van Gundy

11. Don't Expect Instant Results

There is one thing I can promise you...

You're not going to become a great shooter overnight.

• You'll feel like you're not making progress at all...
• You'll feel like it's pointless to continue...
• You'll feel like you want to give up...

But if you're consistent, the results will come.

This means being consistent with multiple weeks and months of working hard on your shot, not multiple days of practice.

I've had many players come to me upset because they've been making 200 shots a day for five days in a row and they haven't seen any progress.

It doesn't happen that quickly!

The process takes time.

A Special Note for Basketball Coaches...

If a youth player is shooting with bad technique, it's our fault.

Yep, you read that correctly...

Not any one coach specifically, but all of us as a whole.

Players fall into certain shooting habits early and we can't expect 5 - 12 year old kids to know the correct way to shoot a basketball.

It’s our responsibility as coaches to ensure that our players are shooting with great technique by teaching them correct form and using shooting technique drills in practice.

I once wrote an article explaining that there are only two steps to becoming a great shooter…

1. Master the Mechanics (Coach’s responsibility)

The first step to becoming a great shooter is mastering shooting technique.

It’s the coach’s responsibility to learn what great shooting technique is and teach it to their players.

It’s one of our most important roles in assisting players to develop their shot.

2. Lots of Smart Repetitions (Player’s responsibility)

The responsibility of the second step rests solely on the shoulders of each individual player…

Putting in the time to shoot the amount of shots it takes to be a great shooter (I recommend 1,500 makes a week).

There simply isn’t enough time during practice for players to get many shots up during team practice.

The bulk of these makes must come during the player’s own time.

Photo and Video Credit:

A big thank you to Ryan Razooky for providing this blog post with images and videos of the different steps on how to shoot a basketball.

Conclusion

Even after 6,000+ words on how to shoot a basketball, it's important to understand that there is not one 'correct' way to shoot.

• Steph Curry
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Reggie Miller
• Ray Allen
• Klay Thompson
• Peja Stojakovic

All of these players are world-class shooters with very different shooting techniques.

Use the 10-steps I've outlined above as a guide to develop your own shot and then make subtle changes to find what works best for you.

90,000 The father was kicked out of the house due to depression, the brothers died from drugs and alcoholism, and he discovered the secret of basketball. Who is this guy that Jordan hates 30 years later? - Lantern - Blogs

Isaiah Thomas - the best little in the history of basketball. Before Steph Curry, he was the only small point guard who managed to take the championship as the first star of a team where there was no dominant center. Thomas's Pistons won the championship twice in a row, in '89 and '90, and could have three-pitted before Jordan if their leader hadn't suffered an ankle injury at 3-2 in the '88 final. .

At the same time, Isaiah Thomas is remembered today only because of his long-term conflict with Michael Jordan, who unhooked him from the US team before the 1992 Olympics.

Father

Thomas's father, Isaiah Thomas II, served in an African-American unit during World War II and was wounded in the Battle of Saipan.

After returning, he moved from the south to Chicago.

Thomas Sr. could read blueprints and became the first black foreman at International Harvester. “Everything was great, we were chic. Every day there was a lot of food, everyone went to school. We had a great family. But it all ended when I was six years old, - said Isaiah. - Almost every week we discussed the life of blacks in the country. Why we were not given access to education and other aspects. There has never been hate here. We didn't talk about hating white people for all this. It simply concerned a general understanding of the system in which you live and exist. You don't have to believe in it. But you have to work. You should get A's on the given topics. You may not believe in the topic itself, but you should get A's... He couldn't get a promotion. They constantly promoted a white guy who was first his subordinate, and then became his boss. And so, when this happened again, he made a scandal. He was fired."

Thomas Sr. could not obtain a position of the same status. For several years he was unemployed - either looking out the window or watching TV, he allowed himself and his children to watch only educational programs. Isaiah described him as "a very, very intelligent man", "who was frustrated that he could not use his intellect".

Thomas recalled that "Father was so depressed he could have done something crazy to us."

“Who knew then what depression is? He went down and down. Then my brothers got hooked on drugs... Looking back, I would say that he felt a great sense of shame - he could not do anything about the troubles that fell on us ... His mother kicked him out of the house. That is exactly what happened. He didn't say, "To hell with you, I'm leaving." She kicked him out herself. She told him: “You either shit or get off the potty, because something needs to be done.” But then no one imagined what was going on inside him .

He got a job as a truck driver and appeared only from time to time.

In 1986, Thomas Sr. returned to his wife because he had cancer.

“He died in his mother's bed,” Thomas said. - His mother took him back in the last year of his life, because he was already very ill .... He died, but he never took a cent from me. I offered to buy him a house. He offered to buy him an apartment. "No, it's your money." I was offended, but he still stood his ground.

“Father never believed that sport was an opportunity to get ahead,” Thomas emphasized. “He thought the focus should be on education, and “that basketball stuff,” as he called it, was just there to entertain white people. Now I understand where this comes from: the whole history of sports, entertainment, slaves who were forced to fight against each other. And that's how he looked at African Americans. “It is below your dignity,” he said. “I will never support it.” He attended only one match, and even then he left after the first half.

Brothers

“I remember the first time they put a gun to my head. I was in the sixth grade at the time and I made a living by shining shoes on the corner of Mayfield and Madison, where there was a pool room. So we got money, cleaned shoes in various places. My booth was near the entrance. And then a man comes in, points a weapon at me and says: “Everyone, don’t move.” They needed some guy who played billiards. They took out the rebar and beat him - the dude who was holding the gun, and two more. I screwed up at that moment. When you're so scared, you just can't control yourself. And I got lost. Then he went to the toilet, somehow cleaned himself up, and everyone went about their business, as if nothing had happened.

After the father passed away, a family of ten often had nothing to eat. Almost every year they had to move to a new place: the mother arranged a new home for one of the children, but since they could not pay the bills, they were sooner or later evicted and the next child was blacklisted. They roamed the West Side, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago.

“Those were the worst times. We lived without heating, in winter we had to sleep in clothes. As soon as we settled in the house, everything instantly broke down - the stairs collapsed, the plumbing did not work. Catastrophe.

Often needed to find a place to sleep. If I did not sleep with my mother, then I settled on the floor between the bedrooms of my brothers and sisters. A lot of vagrants came to us then - my mother took money from them for living, and therefore all the space was occupied. Very often I had to sleep in the hallway on the ironing board.

There was also no food. We mostly ate granola. No milk, nothing. Ate granola and order. Hungry? Eat more granola. Most of the time, I either stole food from my classmates or asked for friends.”

Thomas' mother ended up being the inspiration for Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story, which won an Emmy.

There is an episode in it that, according to all members of the Thomas family, seems to have actually happened.

Representatives of the local Vice Lords gang drove up to their house and knocked on the door.

- We need your boys. They can't just hang around here and not be part of a gang.

- There is only one gang here. And it's called the Thomas gang.

Mother Thomas quickly ran to get a gun and pointed it at the guests. Those left.

In fact, by the time Isaiah Thomas received a scholarship to the university, his brothers were already making careers on the street with might and main. One joined the Vice Lords gang and then rose to the rank of deputy leader, two others sold drugs and pimped, a few more sat on drugs .

The three seniors showed promise in basketball, but at some point switched to more interesting activities.

There was such a moment in the life of Isaiah Thomas. His idol was his brother Larry, who had once been a star in school and got injured before watching the Bulls, and then made a living driving around the neighborhood in a blue Cadillac offering heroin and three young ladies.

“Larry was my idol: I tried on his clothes, copied his walk, talked like him. The street was a game: tricks, dice, selling drugs. I knew how to do all this from an early age.”

And then one day Larry Thomas was driving around the neighborhood and saw that the younger brother was walking around in his bright suits and wide-brimmed hats, a pimp's outfit.

“He showed me the heroin and said, 'This will kill you. “The best way to win is not to play this game. Don't play because you can't win. I chose the easy way and I hate myself for it. Don't do what I do. Some of us have to break into the NBA and get paid. Lord Henry failed. Gregory failed. I was close, but I also failed. But someone has to”… After that, he took me to the site and practiced the throw with me. It was he who saved me. Before that, I was in complete prostration, but at that moment I wanted to fulfill his dream.

All the brothers did their best to protect the younger from the influence of the streets. It was hosted at St. Joseph, a private school in a suburb of Chicago, 15 kilometers from their ghetto. If they were seen hanging around idle on the street, they immediately took action. Isaiah claims that his brothers beat him if he went off the school-basketball-home route.

Little Thomas lived in parallel worlds: on the one hand, he spoke correct English, studied at a school for whites and turned into an intellectual, on the other hand, he never forgot that the aggressive style of his game developed on street playgrounds, where he also had to fight and hide from gunshots.

“Once we played on a flat ground: one ring at the bottom, another ring at the top. We were in the lower part, and then they started shooting. Everyone ran in all directions. When they shoot, you have to lie down on the ground. There was a car parked there and I got under it. Remember when cars had such low-lying exhaust pipes? Here I was lying under this one, and it was very hot. I had to bend over so she wouldn't burn me. I'm lying like this, trying not to touch this pipe, and then the guy gets a bullet and falls right in front of me. I look at him, but I can't help it. I'm under the car and he's in front of me. I don't know if he died."

“We had to fight almost every day until you were reckoned with. Walking away from a fight is showing weakness. When I was 12 years old, I played basketball in a club where a dude from my team took away my travel money after every match. This went on for two weeks. I tried to tell him that we were partners, we had just helped a friend, beat back fives, gave passes on the court. "Fuck it all, give me the money." Once an older guy told me that you need to resist, because he does not know how to fight. And so I told him that I would not give him money. He hit me hard. Hit him hard in the chest. And although I did not resist, he did not take money from me again.

“Endorphins and adrenaline act like drugs. They help not to feel hungry, they relieve pain. Now that I'm older, I understand it all. When I played on the streets, I asked myself this question all the time: during the game I did not feel hungry, this feeling came only after the game. Now that you know how the body works, you understand that there is a release of hormones that allow you not to think about anything.

Basketball was kind of my meditation. For me it was a place where I was always happy. A place where I found harmony. For me, it was a drug."

Thomas made his way to the NBA. One of his brothers died of a heroin overdose, the other after a long struggle with alcoholism. A few more went through prison.

Mother

There is another classic story about the heroic efforts of Mary Thomas to save children from poverty and street chaos.

Despite all the hardships, the woman always refused to move to the area for the poor. And somehow, an employee of the help service for dysfunctional families refused to give her unemployment benefits until she changed her residence permit.

“I didn't want my family to live there: people are raped there, all sorts of outrages happen, and even bandits… I got angry because they told me where I needed to live. So I went straight to the mayor on the bus.”

Mom Thomas burst into the office of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, did not hesitate to rebuff the secretary and stated the problem personally.

In the evening she received a phone call and was invited to collect her allowance.

At home, Mary Thomas was called none other than Jo Louis. She harshly brought up local gangsters, local officials, and her own children.

“Once my brother and I were carrying plums from a supermarket, a security guard caught us and wanted to call the police,” Isaiah said. "But first," he said, "I'll call your mother." We shouted with one voice: “No! Call the police, in no case should you call your mother.

It was she who made the decision about Isaiah's future in basketball.

By the end of high school, Thomas was one of the most notable players in the country. Prestigious universities competed for his attention.

“We were offered cars, money, anything. And we really wanted this - and I wanted it, and my brothers, - Izeya recalled. – I will never forget how a man from one university came to us and brought a suitcase. He opened it and said, "Here's $50,000 in cash." My brothers are screaming: “Yes, baby”, “Yes, we are entering this university!” All this takes about a minute. My mother gets up, closes the suitcase, shoves it back: "My son is not for sale." And we're like, “Yes, yes, yes, we're all for sale! »

The mother sat down and fell silent. The man took the suitcase and left.

“There will be a lesson now. Naturally, we didn't want to hear anything. We're starving here. There is no food. We don't even know what we're going to eat tonight. Talking will not help matters ... But she gets up and begins: “There was a time when we were all bought and sold. And there is no such amount that I will accept for you.

At that time, of course, we did not understand any of this. Then Bobby Knight from Indiana University came to visit us.

They hit it off immediately. He said, “Mrs. Thomas, I offer your son three things. I guarantee that he will go to class every day and get a good education, he will be a gentleman, and I will teach him basketball. And that's all I can offer. I don't even know if your son will play with me.”…

This made a big impression on her. For us, no. Who even wants to play this dude? I don't want to play as him . But he and his mother have already agreed on everything. My mom also asked him, “In Indiana, right next to Bloomington, there's a place called Martinsville, and that's where the Ku Klux Klan is headquartered. Who will protect my child from them?” Coach Knight is awesome. He replied: "If we win, they will protect him themselves."

My mother laughed. My brothers got angry."

In the end, Gregory Thomas had a little showdown with Knight, but that didn't change anything. At a press conference, Thomas's mother announced, "We chose Indiana."

Bobby Knight

Indiana's coaching methods were considered controversial as early as the 70s. Before the decision, Isaiah Thomas received a letter from well-wishers saying that Bobby Knight was tying up his charges and beating them up. You can easily believe this: his regular brawls with judges, policemen, fans, attendants, and so were constantly in sight. Shortly before that, he rejected the young Larry Bird, who preferred alcohol to basketball lessons from Knight.

All in all, Knight was the perfect coach for Thomas, one of the first players to break out of poverty into professional basketball.

The hard legacy of the ghetto was expressed in the fact that - according to the description of the coaches - "he did not know how to play." The point guard often flirted, abused colorful elements, lunged at the crowd alone, lost orientation in space. He much more liked the freedom that, on a more or less serious level, no one gave him. It is no coincidence that he gave out his most inspired impromptu in the NBA at the All-Star Games, where he had quality partners and a lot of space for creativity.

Team basketball is more difficult.

He was painfully retrained at school. Bobby Knight fought him for at least a year.

Before starting his training in Indiana, Thomas clashed with a formidable coach three times. At the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, he lost his temper and threatened to send him home. Then kicked him out of training. Then he dragged his breasts during the game.

Gradually Thomas came to the "fundamentals" that would soon characterize him much better than anything else. “It’s easy to see why we win,” he explained. - Firstly, we act tougher than the opponent. Secondly, our game is simple: we run, pass, screen and pass to an open player. Then we run back and defend ... I like that Coach Knight has everything very simply arranged: his training polishes the most important basketball moments to automatism. They become part of you. It seems to me that thanks to this, it allows everyone to develop.”

During the first season, Thomas was the only one who always started.

During the second time, I already forced the coach to reconsider his egalitarian views on basketball and give him a little more authority.

When Thomas was appointed captain, he even plucked up the courage to discuss with the coach his overly harsh manner with the players. In his opinion, she killed the motivation of partners.

- That's a problem, coach.

- There is no problem here.

When Knight once again kicked him out of training, Thomas already accepted it with humility. “That’s right, everyone is equal in the coach’s team, and now it’s my turn.”

Bobby Knight's Indiana took the NCAA championship in 1981. Thomas was named the best player in the Final Four. The coach defended his ward in the accumulating controversial situations and even begged him to stay at the university for another year.

Thomas already left him not just super talented, not just having adopted the mentality of an Indiana laborer. He called himself "a role model for those who remain in the ghetto" - rich, educated, married to the daughter of a CIA agent and looking at basketball a little differently .

Secret of Basketball

Isaiah Thomas was selected by the Pistons with the second overall pick in the 1981 draft.

Almost everyone criticized Detroit for this. Basketball remained a big game, all points were scored in the immediate vicinity of the basket, only a few times in history it was possible to build a winning team with a classic point guard as the first star (Jerry West, Walt Frazier).

Isaiah Thomas did as much for Detroit as Jordan did for Chicago - turning a shabby, useless club into a city favorite. But throughout his career, he always repeated that he "is not a franchise", that is, a backbone player. And he became especially furious during the series of 89, when he was pushed into duels at a rate of fire with Jordan. In the second match, he scored 33 points, but criticized the partners for having to do too much: "If it comes down to Isaiah Thomas going against Michael Jordan, then we will lose every time" . (In that match, Detroit, however, won).

Thomas was the perfect number one - one that doesn't qualify as "pass-oriented" or "shoot-oriented", offensive player or defensive player.

His season with 20+ points and 13+ assists shows that he was just focused on a good attack - with a phenomenal combination of sharpness and harlemglobe dribbling, he managed to get under the shield even in the 80s, when no one had heard of space and three-pointers , and the place in the "paint" was clogged with huge bodies. He created an attack for himself, and understood how important it is to constantly feed his partners. He was returning to his street childhood, breaking fast breaks, and was not at all afraid of pain. There was a perfect balance between creativity and the classic rigor of the Bobby Knight school.

His performance for the historically best defensive team of all time shows that even a puny 185cm body can be quite useful with a certain berserker mindset, obsession with results and perseverance.

But there was something else in him that cannot be described by any numbers.

The Basketball Book by Bill Simmons is built around what is called The Secret of Basketball. Actually, the secret itself was invented by Isaiah Thomas back in the 80s.

“I used to come into the Lakers locker room after their wins and try to figure out what makes them winners. I ended up chatting with Jack Nicholson or whatever, when I really wish I could talk to Magic at this point. But Magic wanted to be with partners, that's understandable. Perhaps because I wasn't part of the celebration, I figured out their secret...

These teams were full of talented players, but that's not the only reason. They also won because they treated each other well, everyone knew their role, did not pay attention to individual statistics and valued victories more than anything else. They won because the best players on the team sacrificed something for their partners. And the team won as long as everyone agreed with this philosophy and represented a single organism, and began to slide down as soon as at least one of them separated from the rest .

Year after year, at least one contender for the championship lost ground, and the reasons for these failures had little or no connection with basketball. And year after year, the rings of champions deservedly received teams in which everyone got along with each other and fulfilled their role.

That's the secret. It's not about basketball."

Today everyone, including Thomas, is trying to evaluate by statistics. Although thirty years ago he himself urged not to do this.

“I didn't want what happened with Seattle and Houston to happen to us. It's hard not to be selfish. The art of winning is complicated by statistics, which for us means money. And this must be fought. It seems to me that we succeed. We will be the first team in history where no one scores even 20 points on average. First. Team. In history. We have all twelve guys aimed at winning. And in every match we find a new leader. Our opponents should think about how to stop eight or nine players, not two or three. And that's the only way to win. This is how the game was designed."

Switch

At the same time, Isaiah Thomas himself always remained the leader, it's just that this was not always expressed in a banal set of points.

Two features defined him as a leader.

First, the creation of a special environment for the Pistons, what was promoted as the Bad Boys.

Thomas and his friend Laimbier did not trust coaches with questions of motivation. "The main goal is to create conditions in which defeat will be considered unacceptable" , - said Isaiah. It meant cuts in training, it meant preventive conversations with those who are moving away from the general line, it meant constant pressure on the players. The Bad Boys didn't come out of nowhere, the Bad Boys grew out of an army training run by specific people: Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, Rick Mahorn, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards, Mark Aguire, John Sully - they all gradually got into the spirit which the leader drove into them.

Already in his first season, Thomas had a meeting where he said, “I didn't come here to lose. If you don't want to win, don't go on the court." He was 20 years old, he had just appeared in the league.

Next, the roster was assembled under it. Those who wanted to stay in Detroit were obliged to compensate for any shortcomings with desire and toughness. It is no coincidence that in Rodman's forbidden tricks against Scottie Pippen, first of all, they saw a desire to please the leader. It is no coincidence that Rodman was eventually forgiven these tricks, Isiah Thomas was not.

He once said: “Our team is best described as a collection of lunatics, scum and outcasts. The general consensus is that none of us should be anywhere near in this league, that our locker room walls are padded with felt, and Chuck Daly is a psychiatrist in a nuthouse."

Secondly, an internal switch that allowed him to fully control the game.

This could have been expressed in many ways.

On the one hand, Thomas was invaluable for the endings - as soon as he was eliminated due to injuries, the Pistons began to lose equal matches. His inspired performances at such moments gave real masterpieces. That and 16 points for 94 seconds in Game 5 against the Knicks in '84, and 24 points in the third quarter against the Hawks in '87, and 25 points in a quarter on an injured ankle in Game 6 in '88, and series-winning explosions with Chicago and in the final with Portland. In those moments when he was needed, the point guard switched to the show mode of one and gave the result, although at the same time he was indignant with the partners. His street nature showed through all the masks of trustworthiness and training, and knowledge of the "secret" - at such moments Thomas was compared to a ferocious bulldog, going crazy at the sight of blood.

On the other hand, all this variability of the Pistons, a team of twelve equal players, also comes from Thomas. He went to the floor in order to squeeze the maximum out of those who were in his clip. And that meant completely different game modes. Thomas could appear as a point guard carrying the ball, delivering it to certain points to specific people who couldn’t do anything else (like Rodman, Mahorn, Laimbeer), could direct the attack towards snipers catching courage like Dantley, Tripuchka, Aguire, or could generally give the initiative to Vinnie Johnson or Joe Dumars when they have pearls.

Chuck Daley, when he first came to Detroit in '83, spoke of him as a very difficult person to manage because he quickly gets bored and flirts. The coach brought him back to the same ideas that Bobby Knight had: “You need to keep everything simple. Simple transfers. Someday you won't have that athleticism and you'll have to rely more on your head. This is a simple game. Child Game".

A few years later, it turned out that Thomas is a completely different level of understanding of basketball. If the best point guards in the history of the league have several clear ways to influence the game, then Isaiah maintained control of the situation even when he seemed to be giving freedom to others. This is a completely different feeling of partners and what is happening on the site . It seems that this is exactly what allowed him to become one of the several first numbers that led the team to victory as the main star.

"Snake"

Thomas' most striking feature is not something he did on the set. The leader of Detroit always drew attention with an angelic smile, cool dimples and a voice in which there is not the slightest trace of black America. At first, this appearance of the “killer with the face of a child” was touching. Then somehow everyone agreed that it was, as Michael Jordan would say, “complete crap.” Something ominous began to be seen in Thomas's smile.

By the early 90s, Thomas was known in the league by the nickname "Snake", although all claims against him were extremely vaguely worded. Including because, as in the case of refusing to shake hands, he always offered some kind of seemingly convincing, albeit crumbling on closer examination arguments.

In '85, Thomas allegedly came up with the idea of ​​not giving the ball to Michael Jordan during the All-Star Game. Although it takes only one eye and a record that is searched in one click to realize that there was nothing like this, this legend has lasted for more than thirty years and is still being repeated today.

In 1987 he unexpectedly supported Dennis Rodman, who remarked that "Larry Bird would be just a good guy if he wasn't white." Although he did chuckle at the same time, even his friend Magic Johnson found the witticism highly inappropriate.

In 1989, he initiated the exchange of partner Adrian Dantley for his childhood friend Mark Aguire. Although there was concern only for team interests, and not for personal interests, this kind of intrigue in those days did not yet seem like a virtue.

V 91st succumbed to Laimbier's persuasion and left Chicago without a handshake. Although the center himself admitted that it was his initiative, it was always believed that a specific little ass was behind all the provocations of Detroit.

In '92 he spread rumors around the league that Magic Johnson had contracted HIV because he was gay. Although he has always denied being behind these conversations, too many sources confirm this. And this is surprising because of the too strange background: throughout the 80s, Thomas and Johnson did not part, Magic had a room in the house specially made for Thomas, and the meetings in the final were so painful for both that they started them with a kiss.

It's like all we know about.

With the exception of the unconfirmed (though apparently real) case of Johnson, everything else can be explained by a painful inability to lose and a slight obsession with the result. Quite a natural side effect for a tiny player who conquered the world of giants. The same thing echoed in the form of a total dislike for Thomas on the part of opponents: he himself always crossed the adequate threshold of rigidity, he always received a response. So it was at the university, where the player Perdue broke him, so it was in the NBA, when Karl Malone almost blew his head off in retaliation for the demarche against Stockton.

But there was something else.

Chuck Daly, head coach of Detroit and the Olympic team, didn't want to defend him in front of the committee that recruited the US team in '92. Although he seemed to owe almost everything to Thomas.

Bill Davidson, owner of the Pistons, not only didn't give/sell Thomas a stake in the club (which was much talked about), but he didn't give him anything at all - not a place on the bench, not in the front office.

They parted ways with like-minded and assistant Bill Laimbeer on the fact that Thomas, to everyone's delight, broke his hand on his head.

The same thing he tried to do with Rick Mahorn, also a very close person, although he was given to Detroit as a result of league expansion.

It's pretty clear why Thomas was hated by his rivals - for his annoying combination of dirty tricks and an innocent smile, for the Pistons' mean style and always the right words. But even with his own, he did not succeed very well. And this despite the fact that during the 80s Thomas was the head of the players' union and, it seems, should have had authority among colleagues.

Even before leaving the family, Thomas Sr. conducted an experiment on his sons. He brought them to the roof and asked them to jump down, assuring them that he would definitely catch them there. When the first jumped, dad stepped aside, and then explained that in life you should not trust anyone at all.

Failures

Since we live in a time of extravagant thinkers, almost everything is subject to revision. Now here is the forgotten career of Isaiah Thomas and the disdain for the Pistons in the late 80s.

Fun fact: Thomas has a positive playoff balance against the Magic, Jordan and Byrd.

The Pistons are lost in history due to a rather logical circumstance. They won twice, but only filled an era of stagnation: they did not have enough health and luck (and the absence of monstrous mistakes in the last seconds) to prevail over the healthy Celtics and Lakers, and when the victories began, they were already either over broken Lakers, or over immature Bulls and Blazers.

All championships are important, but some are more significant. Detroit's championships are as bland and devoid of luster as the team itself.

And Thomas himself discredited his own heritage after the end of his playing career . It doesn't translate well in numbers (very underwhelming performance stats, not particularly impressive points/assistance figures, short career length), it doesn't promote respect for miniature size (too many have suffered from it), but it should be reminiscent of one of the most sensitive basketball players in history. So ingenious that he even managed to define an era that was completely unsuitable for 185-centimeter point guards who love speed.

But off the court, Thomas picked up bad luck after bad luck.

Proved to be a terrible commission agent and finished off the Continental Basketball Association.

Couldn't show anything but toughness as head coach of Indiana, Knicks, Florida University.

Created a sophisticated collection of idiotic, ridiculous, and downright absurd decisions as general manager of the Knicks.

Shut down the NBA after a $11 million sexual harassment scandal.

Showed nothing as a commentator and expert.

Thomas himself did everything to make it difficult to present him as a basketball intellectual 30 years later. Therefore, now he is relevant only as a person so prickly and unpleasant that he was able to inspire amazingly persistent hatred of Michael Jordan himself.

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/East News; Gettyimages.ru/Al Bello

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December 2018

Greetings to all game lovers, big and small! New Year is coming, which means we have nice gifts for you. These include a collection of Christmas games about Santa Claus, Father Frost and the Snow Maiden. We hope everyone will enjoy throwing snowballs and sleigh rides during the New Year holidays, which have always been a real vacation for children, but for adults have turned into a full-fledged vacation.

November 2017

Having noticed the best flash games sinking into the depths of the site, we decided to help you play the old forgotten but popular ones through the display of the new panel. It is not available on all monitors, but only starting with a resolution of 1280px, so as not to distract owners of small screens on the current page. Depending on the genres of the current game, we show different collections, so they differ on different pages.

And also our old and attentive visitors have noticed changes in the main and additional menus. All this is aimed at improving the usability of the site by avid players. We try to make it better (although someone rightly notes here - remove ads and it will be fine) - we answer this something like this: everyone wants to eat and in order to keep all content free for use, put yourself AdBlock and there will be no problems. This is a standard plug-in that cuts out ads inside games and on the pages of gaming sites.

June 2017

As expected, cool and top games were not always pushed to the top. After disassembling and reassembling everything, our team found a way to slip the coolest flash drives upstairs. I hope you will appreciate the ratings that are built with your active participation and the resulting content will give odds to competitors :)

Dear friends. We decided to make a new sorting for game search, it's called Sticky. We find and display the toys that you most often stick to. Turned on - and let's play non-stop. Because everyone considers popularity, novelty - this and that, then we decided to please you with one more filter, according to which games that take a lot of time will be found. Be careful, because starting to play them you can miss such a great weather on the street :).

Given the fact that the flash plugin is blocked by chrome and other browsers, we firstly disabled ads before loading the game (it was a flash movie), and secondly, we decided to add more HTML5. HTML5 is universal and works regardless of the platform on which you open it (PC, Mac, Android smartphone, iPhone, iPad, etc.) support for this plugin will also become limited soon (google said) and unity3d games often hang your browser, which leads to the fact that you leave our beautiful site for other places :)

February 2017

In February 2017, the algorithm for counting thematic and popular games (based on which listings in sections are built) was updated. We decided to calculate the popularity of each game not by the number of its views, but by its duration - this allowed us to identify really popular flash drives on which you hang out for a long time.
As far as theme games are concerned, we had to combine several mathematical models to display truly themed flash drives. Those. if earlier under each game you saw mostly top ones (and they were often the same everywhere), now they are shown more diversely and correctly (in our opinion).

January 2017

Since January 2017, a new menu with a large number of heroes has been added to the site. To some, this option of a sliding menu may seem inconvenient, but I assure you that this is a matter of habit. With a large menu, it has become more convenient to poke at a game genre. And we tried to sort the genres as close as possible to the preferences of our visitors. Added new sections - minecraft and transformers, I don't know why they are so wildly popular :)

July 2016

Since July 2016, we have added the ability to play downloadable iframes (they are on the developers' sites) in a separate window. This will allow, firstly, to increase the size in the visible part of the screen, and secondly, the absence of advertising and other garbage. Often, a flash drive opened in a separate window works faster than one loaded in a standard page (due to the lack of advertising and other page elements).

If you are looking for a site that contains the best and most interesting flash games for adults and children, then you have found it, because on Game01 you can play anything you want!

Convenient interface and flash for every taste

You can choose any fun from the site thanks to a convenient navigation bar. It is enough to select the appropriate section and click on the icon you like in it. Just two clicks - and you enjoy the game for free!

Our site is always available thanks to a reliable server with a good channel, so you can be here at any time of the day without any restrictions. The list of games is updated daily, so we advise you to bookmark Game01 in order to be aware of the latest updates and be among the first to evaluate our carefully selected game novelties.

Develop while having fun!

In the game, each person learns certain information. Strategy, puzzles, logic games, platform games - all these and many other genres develop logic, spatial thinking, imagination and train coordination of movements.

Therefore, those parents who do not allow their children to play online are wrong. The main thing is to choose good games, and you can safely launch any of the options offered on our website, because we don’t have bad games!

The most exciting games for boys

If you like exciting stories and mind-blowing adventures, then games of such categories as "Shooters", "Zombies", "Shooters", "Cars", "War", "Fighting" are specially selected for you. "and many others. Also, you will surely like sports simulators from the sections "Racing", "Hockey" and "Football", because no boy can understand his life without the spirit of competition or fast cars.

You can also enjoy new adventures of various heroes such as Batman, Ben 10, Naruto, Spiderman. Feel like your favorite superhero or cartoon character and overcome any obstacles on your way!

The most beautiful, romantic and interesting games for girls

If you like to model unique outfits or cook delicious and beautiful food, then you will love games in categories such as "Food", "Makeup", "Dress Up" and "Decorate Things" . Show your imagination and exquisite taste by creating beautiful things and showing them to your friends!

In addition, you can take an active part in the adventures of characters from your favorite cartoons, such as "Winx", "Monster High", "Barbie" and many others. Game stories of different genres will not let you get bored, you just need to start!

It is interesting to play for both adults and children

If you think that online flash games are only for children, you are wrong. Among them there are many interesting options, the gameplay of which is really addictive!

For example, the same "Farm", popular in social networks, is presented on our website in various versions, among which you are sure to find an attractive one for yourself. What can we say about various races, fighting games, platformers and shooting games that you can fight alone or with a friend.

The same applies to various logic games, puzzles and strategies. Under the external frivolity of some of them lies a serious challenge to your erudition, logic and spatial thinking. So show others how well you know how to play!

The best games on Game01!

Here you can play for free and without registration. But we still advise you to log in using your account in Odnoklassniki, Mail.ru, Facebook or VKontakte. Just a couple of clicks, and you get a lot of privileges compared to users who have not been authorized. For example, you can enjoy your favorite games ad-free, as well as participate in the monthly player competition with cash prizes.

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