Blog Post #47, April 2, 2009

The Resurrection of the Bank Shot

Category: Fundamentals

Headline: NBA PLAYERS TO GIVE 25% OF SALARY FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Did you see that headline the other day? Me neither. “The odds of the NBA Players Association convincing the players to take a 25% pay cut, to support struggling community-based nonprofits via a stimulus package, is about the same as my 401K being enough for retirement; Joan Rivers becoming our next Miss America; the Clippers winning this year’s NBA championship; and yes, the possibility of seeing a fifteen-foot bank shot in a college basketball game. 

I Googled “Rare Birds” and I was led to a website that listed the endangered birds of the Philippines. At the top of the list was the “Fregata Andrewski” or more commonly known as the “Christmas Island Frigatebird.” People actually go out with binoculars and look for this thing. Now I can sit for hours waiting for a bass to take my bait, but, for the life of me, I can’t understand how these birdwatchers can spend days waiting for one bird to show up.

But yet, in a way I’m just like them. I just spent an entire basketball season looking for a rare species that became endangered right about the time basketball “shorts” were replaced by pants so long, they might as well be warm-ups.  I was looking for the “Altus Percentus Midrangus Bankus Shotus,” more commonly known (or used to be) as the “fifteen-foot bank shot. “ Now I knew it was rare, so I TiVod every game and watched them with complete concentration.  I’ll never forget the first time I saw one. I wasn’t ready. (I was distracted by all the three-pointers and dunks.) So I rewinded, just to make sure. Eureka!

We know exactly why the buffalo became an endangered species, but what happened to the bank shot? Everybody used to talk about it. Sam Jones, the great Celtic, never shot a wing shot without kissing it off the glass first. John Wooden insisted his players use the board. In fact, I recall a teammate actually asking Coach, “Do I have to shoot the bank shot?”

Coach replied, “No, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” My teammate smiled as if he just accomplished something impossible like climbing Mount Everest or something. But Coach wasn’t finished.

“If you choose not to shoot the bank shot, you had better make sure you make it. If you don’t, you’ll be sitting next to me.”

So what happened to the fifteen-foot bank shot? Sam Jones helped the Celtics win 10 World Championships with it. John Wooden won 10 NCAA Championships with it. And the bank shot is a thing of the past? What happened? Did it stop being the highest-percentage outside shot in the game?  Is it like the tonsil and the appendix: No longer needed?

What happened was—the advent of the three-pointer. Players are told, “The worst shot in the game is just inside the three-point line. Back up and shoot the three.” In the modern evolution of basketball, we are seeing an accelerating trend toward two main areas of scoring: Inside the key and outside the three-point line. TV commentators act as doomsday prophets when they talk about the “endangered midrange jump shot.” The area between the key and the three-point line is becoming “No-Man’s Land.” The truth is: We have forgotten about it.

But some coaches are coming out of their amnesia. With more teams skilled at taking charges under the basket, and more shot blockers rising from youth sports, they are realizing, the need for the midrange jumper is greater than ever. They are taking the dust off that old fifteen-footer, applying a little WD-40, and putting it back in the practice plan. And, in the process, these coaches are remembering, when you shoot the bank shot, the percentage goes up. Well, what do you know?

For example, Tom Crean, head coach at Indiana University, reserves 15 minutes of every practice for teaching the bank shot. He’s sold on the value, but why aren’t more coaches buying in? I’d like to give you an answer but, frankly, I have no idea. It seems like common sense to me. The bank shot makes you use proper arc, the backboard softens the shot, the ball sees a bigger basket, and the rebound is likely to come to the middle of the floor where you have more than one offensive rebounder. To me, it’s a no-brainer.

OK. I’m going to get off my soap box but, before I do, I have a request. Would somebody other than Tom Crean admit he knows more about basketball than his players, teach the fifteen-foot bank shot from the wing, and make it nonnegotiable? What’s it going to hurt? Your team’s shooting percentage will go up and you’ll grab a few more offensive rebounds. Nothing wrong with that, right?