Why All Pro Basketball Players Shoot Free Throws Wrong

these videos are getting dangerously close to three-quarters as interesting

I can confirm, I’ve done the Granny shot, I was mocked, but when all I got was net; then folks quit it real fast.

Their ego wouldn't allow it

I remember a Modern Family episode where Jay gets mocked for using that shot even though he was a basketball star in his school days and was very succesful with the shot. It's crazy how the mockery of such a shot is so steeped into culture that nearly all players refuse to use it even if though it has been proven to be more effective. Then again, basketball is the one sport where players have the luxury of turning down a technicque that might give them an extra point or two in a game due to how high scoring the game is. A missed free throw doesn't have nearly the same impact as say a missed penalty.

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Imagine having 100% on FT in the NBA finals with the granny shot lmaooo 😭😭

Shaq being on the "best free throw percentage" graphic is a bit of a crime.

In free throws it is also very important to consider what happens if you miss. After >60% of free throws the teams fight for the ball, with the opposing team having their players considerably closer to the basket. The underhand shot leaves very little momentum to be transfered back after the shot (in case of a miss), giving the opposing team the ball much more often.

The gains from practicing the granny shot on free throws are swamped by the losses to accuracy on standard shots from the field. Practicing free throws with standard form improves accuracy from the field. Since field shots score at least 84 points a game vs 17 for free throws (last NBA regular season), and free throw accuracy is already pretty good, it doesn't take much field loss to make the granny shot practice a net loss. This past season NBA players made .784 of 21.7 free throws. Improving to .9 would add 2.5 points. They made .474 of 88.9 field goals. If the time diverted from standard shooting to practice the granny shot reduces their standard shooting accuracy by .025 the points from the field lost equal the points gained practicing the granny shot. That ignores the three point shot, which would make the field losses still worse. The granny shot is a winner for anyone shooting a lot of frees badly, especially if they don't take many standard shots to begin with -- Shaq and Wilt. For most players the granny shot is a poor use of time.

I'd like to give a speedrunning analogy. In Super Mario 64, the final fight requires you to hit three very precise inputs just a few seconds apart from each other, while doing difficult controller inputs. Bowser throws are easily one of the most infamous run killers of all time, being quite difficult right at the end of a run and losing several seconds if you miss one of them. There's something you can do in order to make them much more consistent. You can pause buffer them. Basically, spam pause so the game advances in smaller, discrete chunks, allowing you to more easily recognize when the right time to throw is. Sure, it looks bad, and it loses a marginal amount of time, but for the sake of consistency it can be very good to do if you struggle with them. However, the shame of missing a bowser throw despite pause buffering is very great. I think the same applies with these basketball throws. Land 100% of your free throw shots with the granny shot and no one will mock you, because if it works then it works. But every time you miss a free throw despite doing the dumb looking shot which is supposed to be more consistent, it will be easily one of the worst feelings you can have.

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The only good real reason I can think of is that if every other shot is going to be overhand, it might feel better maintaining the muscle memory. Like they'll think it will screw up the one or two shots they take after the free throws.

I think what's funny about the overhead shot is that in my school in the early 2000s it looked kinda "gay" because of how your hand bends. So we actually preferred the underhand throw because it looked cooler.

I went to Rick Barry Basketball Camp when I was 11 years old and was taught the Granny Shot by The Man himself. It worked fairly well, but was not as comfortable as using a "regular" shot. You really needed to commit to practicing it a LOT in order to get comfortable at all, which most 11 year olds won't do, so I never used it in a non-camp game, including during my fairly mediocre 4 year high school basketball career.

Rick Barry was a stubborn man. That played to his success.

Pro ball players egos are too massive for that shot, but those fine margins could be very important in close games. Tbh I think shooting 50% when you are a professional is much more embarassing 🤷‍♂

The outside correspondant parts adds a lot of value to HAI videos. Thanks for all the hard work Amy !

5:50 Didn't expect to see Rudy Gobert get roasted by Sam from Half as Interesting, but I'm all for it!

Soooo Hey Arnold was right

Thing is that the granny shot is unusable in all other situations since you have a defender on you. Practicing exclusively for free throws makes a lot of sense if you are a professional players, but doesn't for children so you don't. By the time you probably should old habits die hard. And it isn't socially acceptable currently.