Purch
09-04-2010, 06:00 AM
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/08/30/worlds-greatest-free-throw-shooter-reaches-out-to-shaq-dwight/ (http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/08/30/w...ght/?icid=main)
Quote:
He just might be the greatest pure shooter in basketball history, the greatest untapped resource the NBA has ignored, hidden away now but still ripe to be mined, a little known key that could open the door to a championship season.
To Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, or even LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he could be the ticket to an NBA title in 2011.
"I could make any one of them a 90 percent free-throw shooter, if they had a little time and a willingness to learn,'' he says matter-of-factly. "I guarantee it. Then, how much better would they be?''
St. Martin, 75, is living now in virtual anonymity, still giving shooting lessons, mostly local kids, on his modest, backyard court, a no-frills setup where he has lived and taught for the last 35 years, a middle-class lifestyle that belies his place in history.
He has been the World Record Holder (according to Guinness World Records) for consecutive free throws made without a miss since 1972, officially resetting his own record 15 times.
The last -- and still standing record -- came in 1996 when he made 5,221 consecutive free throws during a shooting clinic that lasted more than seven hours.
And even now, with two surgically repaired shoulders -- the toll from millions of shots he has taken -- and two sore knees that need braces to support them, St. Martin still could outshoot any player in the NBA from the free-throw line.
......
He also holds a lesser-known world record, 84 baskets in eight minutes from 30 feet or more, a considerably longer shot than today's 3-point basket. It's why he tried once, but was denied, to be part of the NBA's 3-point shootout during All-Star Weekend.
He stopped touring almost 10 years ago -- after his second shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff -- then watched in growing frustration as free-throw percentages in the NBA hovered each season in the 75-76 percent range. The NBA matched its all-time high of 77.1 percent in 2008-09, but free-throw shooting dropped back to 75.9 percent last season.
"It has always amazed me that such great athletes are such poor free throw shooters. ... I could take any one of them, and make him a better free throw shooter, a 90 percent shooter.''
Quote:
He just might be the greatest pure shooter in basketball history, the greatest untapped resource the NBA has ignored, hidden away now but still ripe to be mined, a little known key that could open the door to a championship season.
To Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, or even LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he could be the ticket to an NBA title in 2011.
"I could make any one of them a 90 percent free-throw shooter, if they had a little time and a willingness to learn,'' he says matter-of-factly. "I guarantee it. Then, how much better would they be?''
St. Martin, 75, is living now in virtual anonymity, still giving shooting lessons, mostly local kids, on his modest, backyard court, a no-frills setup where he has lived and taught for the last 35 years, a middle-class lifestyle that belies his place in history.
He has been the World Record Holder (according to Guinness World Records) for consecutive free throws made without a miss since 1972, officially resetting his own record 15 times.
The last -- and still standing record -- came in 1996 when he made 5,221 consecutive free throws during a shooting clinic that lasted more than seven hours.
And even now, with two surgically repaired shoulders -- the toll from millions of shots he has taken -- and two sore knees that need braces to support them, St. Martin still could outshoot any player in the NBA from the free-throw line.
......
He also holds a lesser-known world record, 84 baskets in eight minutes from 30 feet or more, a considerably longer shot than today's 3-point basket. It's why he tried once, but was denied, to be part of the NBA's 3-point shootout during All-Star Weekend.
He stopped touring almost 10 years ago -- after his second shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff -- then watched in growing frustration as free-throw percentages in the NBA hovered each season in the 75-76 percent range. The NBA matched its all-time high of 77.1 percent in 2008-09, but free-throw shooting dropped back to 75.9 percent last season.
"It has always amazed me that such great athletes are such poor free throw shooters. ... I could take any one of them, and make him a better free throw shooter, a 90 percent shooter.''