He did it while at Louisville. He did it in the NBA preseason and has continued to do it in the D-League.
Monday, Rockets’ rookie Chinanu Onuaku brought the “granny style” underhanded free throw back to the NBA regular season. Somewhere, Rick Barry is smiling.
Onuaku was called up to the Rockets with Clint Capela out injured, and the rookie got a little run at the end of the Rockets’ blowout win over the Suns. Onuaku was fouled, went to the line, shot underhanded — and knocked down both shots. He’s shooting 67.4 percent from the charity stripe in the D-League. It works for him.
Laugh if you want, but if Dwight Howard or DeAndre Jordan or any of the other hack-a-player targets shot 67 percent from the line that tactic would die quickly. And we’d all be better off.