Hook shot
Encyclopedia
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, 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. The shot is quite difficult to block, but few players have mastered the shot more than a few feet from the basket.
In FIBA games, hook shots were a revered skill for centers before dunks
Slam dunk
A slam dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket with one or both hands over the rim. This is considered a normal field goal attempt; if successful it is worth two points. The term "slam dunk" was...
became more popular; mostly because of the relative difficulty of blocking such shots.
Sky hook
The hook shot became a trademark of Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
, the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
's all-time leading scorer, who was proficient at the shot at a much greater distance from the basket than most players. The greater distance and resulting higher arc on the shot led to the name sky hook, which was coined during Abdul-Jabbar's tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They are part of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and currently plays at the Bradley Center....
and came from the team's radio announcer, Eddie Doucette
Eddie Doucette
Eddie Doucette is the president of Doucette Promotions Inc. He is a former television and radio announcer. He was the original radio voice of the Milwaukee Bucks where he broadcast games for 16 years. He also broadcast games for Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Portland...
, who felt that "that hook was so high that it was coming out of the sky". Blocking the 7-foot, 2-inch center's sky hook was a rare feat, accomplished by few players.
Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
used a similar shooting technique during the 1987 NBA Finals
1987 NBA Finals
The 1987 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1986-87 NBA season. The match took place between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. The Lakers won 4–2, beating the Celtics in the Finals. The key moment of the series was Magic Johnson's junior sky hook in Game 4...
, which he called his "baby hook" in reference to teammate Abdul-Jabbar.
Jump hook
Currently, due to the increasingly physical nature of low post basketball, the jump hook is a more popular hook shot (particularly by Shaquille O'NealShaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal , nicknamed "Shaq" , is a former American professional basketball player. Standing tall and weighing , he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA...
). The player jumps off using two feet instead of taking steps before jumping off using one foot. The jump hook provides for better balance as well as a quicker release, and the shot will be released from higher in the air.