Why Don’t Players Use The Skyhook?
Byron Scott shares why he thinks players don’t develop the skyhook.
Straight out of the gate, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was an offensive threat.
He scored at will and was damn near unstoppable.
In his rookie season, he averaged 28.8 points per game on 51.8 percent shooting.
Additionally, he had multiple 40-point games.
Additionally, additionally, the Rookie of the Year recorded a 51-point game (on 72 percent shooting) against the Seattle Sonics on Feb. 21, 1970.
Not many Rookie of the Years have done that, let alone rookies.
Abdul-Jabbar was an elite scorer his entire career and held the league scoring title for many decades before LeBron James broke it on Feb. 7, 2023.
And “The Captain” did the majority of his damage through the skyhook.
But for some reason, despite having clear evidence that it’s an effective shot, players still shy away from using it; players are choosing not to master it and have it be their go-to move.
Well, Kareem’s former teammate, Byron Scott, knows why: He says it’s because players think the skyhook doesn’t look cool.
Scott was asked by Matt Barnes on the All the Smoke podcast why no one copied the “most unstoppable shot” and answered (at 44:50 mark):
“You know, what I heard Matt, is that it wasn’t a cool shot. It didn’t look cool.”
Scott continued:
“Why does it have to look cool? And nobody could stop it. He either missed or made it. There was nothing you could do about it. It wasn’t like you could, you know, block it and all that. I mean, I think in all the years I played with him, all the years I watched him play before I got to the league, I saw one person block it -maybe two. I think Ralph Sampson was one but it was his weak side; it wasn’t the guy on the ball, you know what I’m saying? You couldn’t do nothing with that shot, so for guys not to even try that shot, it’s just amazing to me.”
Scott also told a story about how he tried to teach one of his players the move but they were reluctant. So, he issued a challenge to this player: He told this 7-0 foot big that he couldn’t block his skyhook.
Mind you, Scott is only 6-4.
”I shot this shot about 10 times in practice on it and he couldn’t block it.”
Abdul-Jabbar played in the NBA for 20 years and amassed 38,387 regular season points. He held the top scorer’s spot for nearly 39 years.
And he did it with a “dorky-looking” shot.
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Now, back to the story…
Random Thought
I was scrolling on YouTube the other day and came across this clip of Sloane Knows, where she asked Taylor Rooks who her GOAT is.
Rooks said LeBron James is her GOAT because she grew up watching him. Sloane added that that’s the beauty of GOAT conversations because everyone is going to have a different answer and reason.
This got me thinking -why are there so few people (if any at all) who name Tim Duncan as their GOAT?
Duncan, who played 19 seasons in the NBA, has five championship rings, three Finals MVP awards, two MVP awards and fifteen All-Star uniforms.
Additionally, he’s 15-time All-NBA, 15-time All-Defensive, and was the 1997-98 Rookie of the Year.
He’s also 17th in all-time points, 6th in all-time rebounds, 5th in all-time blocks, and is the San Antonio Spurs all-time points leader.
Duncan has the accolades of being a GOAT, but yet, people don’t view him as such.
Is it because he played for the San Antonio Spurs and under Gregg Popovich’s system? Is it because he doesn’t have the personality to garner a fandom? Or is it because he was always overshadowed by bigger personalities, like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James and Michael Jordan?
What are your thoughts?
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