Hook shot
In basketball, a hook shot is a play in which the offensive player, usually turned perpendicular to the basket, gently throws the ball with a sweeping motion of the arm farther from the basket in an upward arc with a follow-through which ends over his head. Unlike the jump shot, it is shot with only one hand; the other arm is often used to create space between the shooter and the defensive player. The shot is quite difficult to block, but few players have mastered the shot more than a few feet from the basket.
The hook shot was reportedly performed for the first time in official games in
In FIBA games, hook shots were a favored skill for centers before slam dunks became more popular, mostly because of the relative difficulty of blocking such shots.
Skyhook
NBA's
The hook shot became a trademark of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the National Basketball Association's second-place all-time leading scorer, who was proficient at the shot at a much greater distance from the basket than most players. The greater distance and resulting higher arc on the shot led to the name skyhook, which was coined during Abdul-Jabbar's tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks by the team's radio announcer, Eddie Doucette, who felt that "that hook was so high that it was coming out of the sky".[2] The skyhook was almost never blocked, and it was accomplished by only a few players known for their extreme height like Wilt Chamberlain and Manute Bol.
Magic Johnson used a similar shooting technique during the 1987 NBA Finals, which he called his "baby hook" in deference to teammate Abdul-Jabbar.[3]
Jump hook
Due to the increasingly physical nature of
Former #1 pick in the 1962 NBA draft, Billy "The Hill" McGill, was known for using the jump hook shot in both his college and pro careers.
See also
- Basketball moves
- NBA records
References
- ^ Robertson, Oscar (6 August 2011). "Coronation for Basketball's Clown Prince". New York Times. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
- NBA.com. Archived from the originalon 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
- ^ "Magic Maneuvers Lakers Past Celtics". NBA Encyclopedia: Playoff Edition. Archived from the original on June 22, 2011.
External links
- Sky Hook A Variant of Hook Shot
- Baby Hook A Variant of Hook Shot
- "The History and Mystery Behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Skyhook". Ball the Right Moves. The Ringer. June 12, 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13 – via YouTube.