If you asked any of my long time friends who have played basketball with me over the years, they would not use the words that are contained in the title of this blog posting.
Over the years, I have garnered a reputation as a mid range (15 to 17 foot) jump shooter. Because of that, I usually play the shooting guard or small forward positions on offense.
However, in the past year or so, I have slowly started to take a more active role in being the primary ball handler and passer. The main reason for this was that I played on several teams with inexperienced players. Early on, I tried to play my normal shooting guard and small forward positions. However, I wasn't playing with my usual teammates and things were not going smoothly. It just simply made sense for me to take over the ball handling duties and try to facilitate the offense. It's not that I am a great ball handler or passer. However, due to my experience (18+ years or playing in leagues), I brought some steadiness that I thought could be helpful.
In fact, this trend continues currently as I play point guard currently for a couple of teams. Interestingly enough, both teams have not won a game. Perhaps that tells you something about my point guard skills.
The interesting side effect of playing point guard has been my three point shooting. Since I spend a good amount of time handling the ball, I don't get to shoot from my usual spots on the court as much. During a game about a month ago, I decided to put up some three point shots instead. The league was a friendship league and there weren't many complaints about me putting some shots outside of my usual range. Interestingly enough, I knocked a couple of them down.
The trend has continued in the friendship league. From my own unofficial count, I've hit at least two three pointers in the four league games I've played. Tonight, in my Sunday night league, I added two more three pointers to my total (though I thought one was inside the three point line).
The unofficial count of TEN three pointers made is probably more than I've made in my previous 18 years of playing league basketball. I simply did not shoot three pointers previously. My shooting form just didn't seem to be conductive to effectively shooting three pointers. I could hit shots one or two steps inside the three point line. Move me back though and the shots would be short.
What's changed? Nothing that I can point to directly. The only explanation I can come up with is that I've playing so much basketball (4 times a week) recently so I'm in fairly good shape. Thus the legs are strong and I can shoot better.
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