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Here's how it's done Ben
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqudMlz4Ybw
Here's the article
It's not over the top to suggest Wallace go underhanded
November 2, 2006
Suppose your game had a serious flaw that had the potential to deep-six your team and its season. And suppose the No. 1 expert in the field offered to fix the problem. Even if it meant a drastic change, you would pick up the phone faster than a hiccup, right?
Not if your name is Ben Wallace, apparently.
Wallace is the Bulls center who will be paid $60 million over four years to rebound and defend, basically. Yet as dominant as the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year is at one end, he's almost as bad at the other. He entered the season with a career .418 free-throw percentage, believed to be the worst among regulars in league history.
If ever a guy needs to try something different -- yeah, even the underhanded technique that hasn't been used in decades -- Wallace is the one.
And I know just the person to teach him.
"Ben would be a great candidate for it," said Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry, the career 90 percenter who mastered the underhanded style like no other player before or since. "What a lot of people don't realize is the underhanded technique is the easiest to learn."
Don't laugh. After one hour with Barry recently, Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly promptly nailed a dozen freebies in a row. And Reilly's just another lame sports writer!
Besides, after the way Barry torched the Bulls in the 1975 Western Conference finals, he owes them one, right?
"Never," vowed Wallace, who would have to drain 9,207 consecutive free throws in order to surpass Barry in career percentage.
Why?
"Because that's not basketball," Big Ben told me.
"What I would tell Ben is that the underhanded method was basketball before he played the game and many players had success with it," said Barry, who otherwise admires Wallace and his game. "Actually, I'm surprised a guy that competitive would say that. Then again, I'm not surprised. The NBA today is as much ego and image as wins and losses. Players want to look cool even it comes at the expense of team success, which I find difficult to comprehend."
You know, rappers and comedians such as Miami Heat bricklayer Shaquille O'Neal, he of the career .528 free-throw percentage.
Asked about the old-school method a while ago, Shaq blared, "I'd rather shoot 0 percent than shoot underhanded."
OK, so maybe old fogies like me wouldn't know cool if an Arctic blast hit me in the face. But I don't understand what's so hip-hop about curveballs, fastballs, knuckleballs, screwballs and air balls, which are Wallace trademarks no matter how much time he puts in after practice these days.
"I agree with you," one Bulls official said. "(Head coach) Scott (Skiles) has tried to work with him, but if a player isn't interested, there's nothing we can do about it."
Wallace is hardly alone. Some of the greatest big men ever to play the game smelled like dog breath at the free-throw line. The Hall of Fame list includes Wilt Chamberlain (51 percent), Bill Russell (56), Walt Bellamy (63) and Wes Unseld (63), among others.
The adventures of Wilt at the free-throw line were legendary. The thing is, the Big Dipper was so embarrassed about his utter futility at the line that he tried everything to improve there. He shot from over the top. He shot from between the legs. He shot from a few feet to the left of center. The poor guy even shot from three feet behind the line sometimes.
Yet as pathetic as Wilt was 15 feet away from the basket, at least he had a conscience about it. Wallace? Asked whether he plans to make any changes in his technique this season, Big Ben replied, "Nah, I ain't changed nothin.' "
Actually, Big Ben did change -- for the worse. He converted 22 percent of his charity throws during the preseason.
And you thought a trolley was the only thing that went clang, clang, clang.
"If I shot free throws that poorly, I would try anything within reason -- anything," Barry said. "Ben has the ability to take his team to the NBA Finals on the strength of his defense alone. Now imagine what he could do if he improved at the free-throw line. I sense there are times when he doesn't want the ball because he lacks confidence there."
All of which leaves Skiles between a brick and a hard place. Know how teams resort to the Hack-a-Shaq defense late in close games? Well, what is Skiles to do if and when opponents play Maul-a-Wall in similar situations? He may have no choice but to sit the highest-paid player on the team. Except that, when Detroit Pistons head coach Flip Saunders did as much in one game last season, Big Ben had an expletive-laced hissy fit, then refused to come off the bench minutes later.
And to think Wallace could be a 70 percenter in a matter of weeks if only he says the word.
"It would depend on how much time and effort Ben devoted to the technique, but I believe it wouldn't take long for him to shoot at least 70 percent on a consistent basis," Barry said. "I guarantee this much: He wouldn't be any worse than he is now."
Seventy percent? At the free-throw line? Big Ben? Tell me, how cool would that be?
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