Throwing Muses

Throughout his entire 15-year playing career, NBA legend Rick Barry was a man without shame.

He won a lot of accolades for his play, and was a massively successful star. But he won that success, strangely, by using a style of shot that most people throw out before they reach middle school. See, Barry was an underhand free-throw shooter, and it worked really well for him: For every 10 free throw shots he attempted during his career in the ABA and NBA, he made about nine of them, a rate that was extremely impressive for its time.

There’s nothing stopping players from throwing their free throws underhanded, other than that it looks incredibly awkward. But a point’s a point, and you can’t argue with the results.

That appears to be something that Barry’s son Canyon Barry is taking to heart at the University of Florida. The New York Times reports that Canyon has similarly lived through the mockery and is making a whole lot of free throws by mimicking his dad’s “granny shot” style. Check out this shot of him playing with the College of Charleston in 2012:

And like his dad, you can’t argue with the results: After gaining confidence with the shot style, his shot percentage quickly improved, and this year, Canyon has a free throw percentage of 89.2 percent.

“The repetition has kicked in to where I feel like every time I step to the line, I should be making both of them,” he told the Times.

With a little help from his lineage, he’s shaping up to be an inspiration for people everywhere who look like idiots while successfully doing what they love.