Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Hook shot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A hook shot, in basketball, is a play in which the offensive player, usually turned perpendicular to the basket, gently throws the ball with a sweeping motion of his arm 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. Once the ball is in shooting position, the hook shot is one of the most difficult shots to effectively defend. However, prior to that point, as the ball is being brought up into position, it is very susceptible to being stolen from behind.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the National Basketball Association's all-time leading scorer, was well-known for his highly-effective sky hook, so named because of the height at which Abdul-Jabbar released the ball. Abdul-Jabbar was over seven feet tall, and he released the ball only when his hand was at the very top of his arm's arcing motion. Thus, once released, the sky hook was essentially impossible to block without committing goaltending. Some of the few players in history to ever successfully block one of Kareem's sky hooks were Wilt Chamberlain, Manute Bol, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Artis Gilmore.[citation needed]
Abdul-Jabbar's teammate Magic Johnson used a similar shooting technique during the 1987 NBA championship, which he termed the "baby hook." It proved similarly difficult to defend.
 This basketball-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |