{"id":1574549,"date":"2023-07-08T09:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T13:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1574549"},"modified":"2023-07-08T09:19:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T13:19:10","slug":"rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Barry Vividly Recalled the Abuse He Took in High School From His Underhand Free Throw and How He Dealt With It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rick Barry had quite a professional basketball career. The 6-foot-7 forward, who spent 14 years in the NBA\/ABA, was a 12-time All-Star and led both the NBA and ABA in scoring for a year. Barry is also an NBA champion with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/golden-state-warriors\">Golden State Warriors<\/a> and a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also has one heck of a memory. During an appearance on the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NJjFQ6t9PZE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Showtime With Coop<\/a><\/em> podcast, said he vividly remembered a high school game when a fan mocked him for his <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/rick-barrys-underhand-free-throws-and-why-nba-players-today-dont-follow-suit\/\">underhand free throws.<\/a> He also recalled how he shut up that fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-rick-barry-led-the-nba-in-free-throw-percentage-six-times\">Rick Barry led the NBA in free-throw percentage six times<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Wasn&#039;t Rick Barry&#039;s Free Throw Form More Popular? | Bill Simmons&#039;s Book of Basketball 2.0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iNQDxo2kNmw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rick Barry was a master of the free throw. He led the NBA in free-throw percentage six times and led the ABA once. He also shot when underhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It's something his father pressed on him when Barry was younger. Barry said he finally gave in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;My dad played semi-pro basketball and used to coach,&#8221; Barry told former LA Lakers guard Michael Cooper on Cooper's podcast. &#8220;Back in those days, we had the two-handed set shot and then they shot two hands underhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;So, my dad got me to do it. He was relentless about it. I only did it just to get him to stop bugging me about it. I said I can't do that. Girls shoot that way. I remember like it was yesterday. He said, &#8216;Son, they can't make fun of you if you make them.' He was right.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barry finished his career as an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barryri01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">89.3% shooter<\/a> from the line. He had seven seasons where he shot better than 90% from the foul line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-barry-vividly-remembers-getting-called-out-for-his-unorthodox-approach-from-the-line\">Barry vividly remembers getting called out for his unorthodox approach from the line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">12x All Star, 1966-67 Scoring Champ, 1975 NBA Champion, 1965-66 Rookie of the Year and NBA 75th Anniversary Team member, Rick Barry. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBA75?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBA75<\/a> <br><br>Watch more Rick Barry moments here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1xBUSjJvWR\">https:\/\/t.co\/1xBUSjJvWR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/a3h9PlTysB\">pic.twitter.com\/a3h9PlTysB<\/a><\/p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1504135403099488256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Barry dominated from the free-throw line, it didn't matter to him how he looked shooting the ball. He certainly heard the comments from the fans. He said he can remember a high school game when a fan called him out as he was taking a free throw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I remember \u2014 it's so vivid in my mind, and it was a long time ago \u2014 first game, high school when I started doing it,&#8221; Barry said. &#8220;I can't remember if it was junior or senior year. I'm in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. I'm shooting a free throw, and I hear a guy yelling from the stands, &#8216;Hey Barry, you big sissy shooting like that.'<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;And I heard so perfectly clear, the guy next to him, &#8216;What are you making fun of him for? He doesn't miss.' I was cool with that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He handled the hecklers simply by making those foul shots. Barry stressed the importance of free throws and wished he'd mastered it earlier in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I was a better free-throw shooter at the end of my career,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I just wish I had been smart enough to have figured out what I figured out late in my career early in my career when I was shooting over 10 free throws a game. My last six years, I have the highest free-throw percentage of anybody in the history of the game. The last six years, I shot over 92 percent. My last two years, I shot over 94 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I took great pride in my free-throw shooting.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it didn't faze him how he looked while shooting them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rick Barry didn't care what he looked like while shooting a free throw as long as they went in. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1574550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4849],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rick Barry Vividly Recalled the Abuse He Took in High School From His Underhand Free Throw and How He Dealt With It - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Golden State Warriors star Rick Barry was a tremendous free-throw shooter, and it didn&#039;t matter how he looked while shooting them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rick Barry Vividly Recalled the Abuse He Took in High School From His Underhand Free Throw and How He Dealt With It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Golden State Warriors star Rick Barry was a tremendous free-throw shooter, and it didn&#039;t matter how he looked while shooting them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-08T13:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-08T13:19:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Rick-Barry.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2437\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1721\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/rick-barry-vividly-recalled-the-abuse-he-took-in-high-school-from-his-underhand-free-throw-and-how-he-dealt-with-it\/\",\"name\":\"Rick Barry Vividly Recalled the Abuse He Took in High School From His Underhand Free Throw and How He Dealt With It - 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