![]() ![]() He was trying to answer the question of why people do things out of character. So Granovetter came up with something called the Threshold Model of Collective Behavior. If you're an academic groupie like I am, Granovetter is like James Dean. Granovetter is one of the greatest social theorists of his generation. It's from a sociologist named Mark Granovetter. So why don't they? Or to put it another way, what is it about Rick Barry that allowed him to shoot this way? And what is it about Wilt Chamberlain and all the others that made them resist? Why do some good ideas spread and others go nowhere? We like to think that good ideas will spread because they're good, because their advantages are obvious.īut that's plainly not true. Here's why I went all the way to South Carolina to talk to Rick Barry- not because I'm obsessed with basketball, although I am- but because the strange story of the underhanded free throw is a really good way of thinking about something that has always puzzled me. One, if their family is from another continent, and two, if they're an offspring of Rick Barry. In other words, there are only two conditions under which people will try the underhanded free throw. The other, is Canyon Barry, who played for the College of Charleston, and who- in case you missed this earlier- happens to be Rick Barry's son. One is a Nigerian-American who played for Louisville, named Chinanu Onuaku. ![]() Out of the thousands of college basketball players last season, there were- as far as I can tell- just two who shot underhanded. It's not fair to him, like it's some kind of dark, shameful secret. You know what Chamberlain's coach said to him about his free throws? "If you were a 90% shooter, we might never lose." They didn't play on the same team, but Rick Barry got to know Chamberlain pretty well. If you can't hit your foul shots, it means you can't be used in a tight game. The other side simply fouls you every time you touch the ball because they know you'll miss your free throw and they'll get the ball back. If you're a basketball player and you can't hit your free throws, you're an incredible liability to your team, particularly at the end of close games. And all of a sudden, he's fixed his biggest weakness as a player. Let's think about what he did for a moment. And what happens? He goes back to being a terrible foul shooter. Then, inexplicably, Wilt Chamberlain stops shooting underhanded. He's playing the way that Rick Barry proved basketball players ought to play. It pays off in the greatest basketball game ever played. So Wilt Chamberlain switches to a better shooting technique. And that special night in Hershey, Pennsylvania, he's an incredible free throw shooter. ![]() And all of a sudden, he's a pretty good free throw shooter. He holds the ball between his knees and flicks it towards the basket from a slight crouch. He doesn't release the ball up by his forehead. He starts to shoot his foul shots underhanded. That's terrible.īut this season, Chamberlain changes tactics. There were seasons in his career where he shot 40% from the free throw line. But put him all alone, 15 feet from the basket, and he was hopeless. He was a man who could score at will with two and sometimes three defenders draped all over his body. The reason that's incredible is that Chamberlain was a horrendous free throw shooter, the worst. And here is the most incredible thing about it- he shot brilliantly from the foul line, made 87.5% of his shots. 100 points, the most anyone has ever scored in a professional basketball game. ![]()
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