Ninety percent of the coaches in the NBA are guards, and there aren't very many big men people coaching, I happen to be one of them and when I coached, everybody on my team, including the guards, had a hook shot, so that it was their bail out shot.
Spin is a tricky thing. When you're trying to avoid it - say, on a tee shot, where sidespin puts you in the trees - it's easy to make it happen.
I always loved hitting a low fade to a back-right pin with the wind howling from the right. Not many guys could get it close in that situation, because they kept it low by just putting the ball back in their stance. You see, playing the ball back turns you into a one-trick pony - you can only hit hooks.
I'm gonna come in and keep doing what I do in practice, work on my hook and get in position down low. Hopefully when I'm called upon I can do it consistently.
Anybody that shoots a hook shot, whatever hand, I jump up and cheer because it's the easiest shot, it's the best tweener shot.
For bigs, we usually have three simple moves - and the hook-shot is one of those moves that's a forgotten art. But it's always been an effective move in our league.
A hook shot kisses the rim and hangs there, helplessly, but doesn't drop and for once our gangly starting center boxes out his man and times his jump perfectly, gathering the orange leather/from the air like a cherished possession.
I've never really been somebody who likes to hit it straight. That's just never been my forte, I guess.
