Bob Cousy and Early Shooting Percentages

It's no secret that in the 1950s, shooting percentages in the NBA were surprisingly low. It's a question that has been discussed often enough but never really settled. Perhaps there is no definitive answer, or, perhaps Bill Sharman, later in this piece, provides some answers.

Since there is also a recurring question about a certain modern-day Celtic point guard's shooting ability, it is instructive to see that Bob Cousy's career shooting percentage was .375.

Cooz's shooting percentage started off worse than that, improved, fell back, got better but never stabilized at a respectable number, such as .400: - except if one considers clutch shots, which the record shows that Bob Cousy rarely missed. In his defense, it also should be noted that Cooz was a career .803 free throw shooter.

Cousy's early shooting issues shouldn't be surprising. Some of the NBA's greatest playmakers were slightly challenged shooting-wise early on; Tragic Johnson comes to mind.

Even though Cousy was an excellent foul shooter from the beginning, it's no knock on the man to say that, when he came into the league, his outside shot needed work. Besides the actual stats, there is oral testimony by eyewitnesses.

Arnie Risen is a Hall of Fame center who is best known for teaching Bill Russell the tricks of the trade during Bill's first two years in the league.

ARNIE RISEN: "In my opinion, Bob Cousy became a much better shooter after I arrived in Boston and began playing for the Celtics. Everyone who followed the NBA knew that he could drive to the basket and pass the ball. He was a terrific ball handler, probably the best in the business, but in the early days he really struggled with his shot from the outside. I think that changed because of some of the players on the team. My first year with the Celtics was during the 1955-56 season, and a player named Ernie Barrett was also on the roster at that time. Ernie had played with Boston for a stretch once before – I think it was a couple of years before I signed – and then Red asked him to come back and give it another chance. Ernie was just a tremendous outside shooter. He had a quick release, and great touch. He had played college basketball at Kansas State, where he was famous for his jump shot, and he spent some time with Cousy during my first season with the Celtics. You could really tell the difference in Cousy’s confidence from the outside after that, because he just shot the ball so much better that season."

In the early 1950s, Red Auerbach used to critique Cousy constantly in the press. If Cousy had a great game passing, Red criticized his shooting, if he shot well, Red said he could have played better defense. It was Red's way of motivating his basketball wizard.

RED AUERBACH: "It wasn't until his fourth year that I called Cooz the greatest backcourt man I had ever seen. I got ripped for waiting that long, of course, but I had a right to wait. Here was a guy who was still losing the ball more than he should, who could drive with the best of them but needed more work on his outside shot, who still had a little more to learn about defense, who still had a way to go before he could run the whole show."

Slater Martin may have been Bob Cousy's most difficult matchup, an all-around champion with a fistful of rings from Minneapolis and St. Louis.

SLATER MARTIN: "Cousy was never a good shooter, but he had guts. He'd miss five shots in a row, but if he was open, he'd take and make that sixth shot, and that was the shot that usually broke your back."

It isn't fair to Bob Cousy to end without noting that Cooz did somehow manage to average 18.4 points per game for his career and led the league in assists eight times, while reinventing the game of basketball with his coach and his teammates.

Cousy's fellow backcourt mate Bill Sharman, one of the best shooters ever, once offered his opinion about why shooting percentages were significantly lower back in those antediluvian days.

BILL SHARMAN: "Dolph Schayes, the great forward for the old Syracuse Nationals team, who might have been the greatest outside shooter of all time, only had a career shooting percentage of 38 percent. Bob Cousy's career average was 37 percent. Even George Mikan, who played with the six-foot free-throw lanes and who took most of his shots in close under the basket, only shot 39 percent. Probably the most remarkable stat is the great Hall of Famer Joe Fulks, who was considered the best shooter and scorer in the NBA during his time in the early years of the league, only shot 30 percent for his whole career.

"I think that some of the unusual and unrecognized reasons for the lower shooting percentages are as follows:

"Most of the basketball buildings and arenas were very old and run-down, which made it extremely difficult to play in. In Baltimore, we used to play in a roller-skating rink. In Syracuse, we played in an old building at the fairgrounds that had a leaky roof, a warped floor, and very little heat. They had very few basketball arenas as they do today and most of them had poor lighting, all kinds of different, inadequate floors, bad temperatures, et cetera. Many were used for hockey and we would play right over the ice with no insulation except the basketball floor itself. Suffice to say, with cold, stiff hands and fingers, it certainly didn't help the shooting touch and percentages.

"Also, the basketballs were not molded until the late fifties and were often lopsided and not even round, which made them more difficult to dribble and shoot with.

"Transportation was another problem and certainly a factor in the early years. Especially before they started using the jet airplanes. We often would leave on a lot of road trips by trains, cars, buses, et cetera, and travel all night just to get to the next game on time.

"Another thing is that with less running and team movement, the officials used to allow a lot more pushing, shoving, holding, hand-checking, et cetera. I believe that this is why they had so many fights in those early years.

"However, like everything else in sports today, with the younger players getting better coaching and exposure at a much earlier age, there is no doubt that today's athletes are bigger and better. But I just wanted to point out some of the reasons that there is definitely not that big a difference in shooting ability between today's players and those in the early years of the NBA, at least as is indicated by their shooting percentages."

Dark, cold arenas. Warped floors. Lopsided balls. Pushing and shoving. Rigorous travel. Better coaching and conditioning of modern players. All these can be added to the mix and still there is no definitive answer. For example, Sharman didn't mention the jump shot or the influx of black athletes.

Spike,

Interesting that Sharman didn't mention a biggie, which he alluded to in another interview...the tight rims of the time.

http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/Where_Are_They_Now_With_Bill_-119123-25.html

Bill said, "They had the original baskets that were bolted right into the backboard, then later, they put in the break-away baskets and some days I hit the rim and some would fall in. I wish I had those rims when I was playing because I would hit all iron and it would bounce off."

With respect to Cousy, there's another factor too...the outlandish shots he so often took. For every groundbreaking pass he threw, he had an unorthodox pass too. At the beginning of his career, he tended to be more conservative until the game was well in hand. But later on, the confidence he developed in these bizarre shots motivated him to take them even in the clutch because, by that time, he had the guts of a burglar.

If anyone needs convincing of this, whichever is your main shooting hand, go to that side of the court, run full speed toward the basket but at least 18 feet to the right of it. When you approach the end line, throw up a running right-handed bank hook shot. Keep doing it until you make one. If overnight lodging or food are required before one falls, just call (800) NOTCOOZ.

When a shot finally does go it, after celebrating, switch to your "off side" and repeat the process with the other hand. Remember to stay out at least 18 feet and not to slow down when you're shooting. If a birthday or two passes before you make one, just call (800) PARTEZ for a party-to-go.

Wait, we're not finished. Now go out beyond the arc and develop six different shooting styles for perimeter shots. Develop a facility for shooting each of them so that opponents couldn't predict what you were up to and be ready to defend it. Repeat the familiarization process.

Wait, we're not finished. Imagine playing in the NBA for 13 years, and making it a point to develop a new shot variation during every single offseason. Repeat the familiarization process for each of those variations.

Now conceive of what it was like to take a lopsided ball on an uneven court with tight rims and use this constantly evolving shooting arsenal against major league defenses under game pressure and especially in the clutch. Than, and only then, can one realize that 37.5% was actually a rather fantastic shooting percentage under the circumstances.

Sam