YouTube Gold: The Strangest Jump Shot In NBA History

Dick Barnett was something else

In the 1989 Book You Gotta Have Wa, author Robert Whiting talked a lot about the pressure to conform to particular standards in Japanese baseball, like batting in a very uniform way, and how American players in Japan struggled with a more regimented form of practice.

Of course if you were good enough, even the Japanese managers let you do it your way. Take Sadaharu Oh, who lifted his right leg before swinging. Fans called it The Flamingo. His managers tried to force him to hit the “right” way but gave up when his way proved better (he finished with 868 career homers, 106 more than MLB leader Barry Bonds and didn't need steroids to do it).

Americans have always been entertained by athletic flakes. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was a highly eccentric pitcher. Billy “Whiteshoes” Johnson was famous for obvious reasons. Larry Johnson had a weird hitch in his foul shot and Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, tripping on a day when he assumed he wouldn’t be asked to pitch.

Dick Barnett has to be in the Hall of Fame of eccentric athletes.

Why?

Just watch his form: he kicks his legs up when he shoots. It doesn’t seem like it gives him any advantage; he probably just started doing it as a kid, liked it and kept it in his game.

He was a tremendous offensive player and since since legendary NC State star David Thompson emulated him, it had some influence.