Hook shot

In basketball, a hook shot is a play where the offensive player, usually turned perpendicular to the basket, gently throws the ball using a sweeping motion of the arm further from the basket in an upward arc with a follow-through which ends over his head. Unlike the jump shot, it is performed with only one hand; the other arm is often used to create space between the shooter and the defensive player. The shot is quite difficult to block, but only a small amount of players have mastered it more than a few feet from the basket.

The hook shot was reportedly performed for the first time during official games in Eurobasket 1937 by Pranas Talzūnas, a member of the eventual champions, the Lithuania basketball team.^[1] Former Harlem Globetrotter Goose Tatum is often credited with inventing the hook shot; he even shot them without looking at the basket.^[2] The hook shot later became a staple of many players in the National Basketball Association (NBA), including stars such as George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Vlade Divac, Wilt Chamberlain and Yao Ming.

In FIBA games, hook shots were a favored skill for centers before slam dunks became more popular, mostly because of the relative difficulty of blocking such shots.