CALAMBA, LAGUNA - Not a few big men had unique routines at the free throw line.
There's Shaq's consistently inconsistent shots, Marlou Aquino's ball wrap-around before the attempt, and Joakim Noah's form that looked like a chest pass than a shot.
Add one more to the list with James Laput unveiling his one-handed free throws in the 2020 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3 President's Cup at the INSPIRE Sports Academy.
Safe to say, though, they have been working for the most part.
In the first leg of the pioneering professional 3x3 league last Wednesday, the 6-foot-9 beanpole of the Big Boss Cement Green Gorillas-Porac made four of his six one-handed free throws.
Why one-handed? He explains.
"It seems very unorthodox, but I remember my college coach giving me one-handed drills to develop my shooting. I was making those in practice, but I shot two-handed free throws in games because it was the tradition and it never worked," shared the former La Salle big man.
"I practiced those again before Leg One and they were falling. I decided that, 'Screw it! I'm gonna do it in-game and it worked.'"
With that, don't expect Laput's unorthodox shooting form at the line to be going away anytime soon. As he put it, "I'm gonna keep doing it. Don't fix what ain't broken, you know?"
It's not just his free throws that the Filipino-Aussie promises will get better and better, however. He believes that he will be much better at the end of the President's Cup than when he first began practicing two months ago.
"This is my first time playing competitive 3x3 so it's a whole new experience, but I am already loving it," said Laput. "Personally, I need to be in the best shape possible. I believe in my ability and obviously, I just need to keep working every day."
In a way, all the jokes that have been made at his expense by outspoken emcee Sudan Daniel have been helping him as well.
"I love it! Keep doing it! That fuels me," said the one-and-done La Salle player in the UAAP. "I've been conditioned to listen to that constructive criticism. I'm not going to go into a shell just because he's saying that. I'll fix it and I'll do it."
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