My Dad was pretty good at basketball. He played point guard and loved reminding me whenever we played HORSE at home.
Oddly, there were times he was better the further out he shot. At the time I put it down to dumb luck more than anything else. But as I get older, more of the things your Dad says or does start to make sense.
I’ve been following Caitlin Clark recently. She’s one of the biggest stars in the WNBA right now. What stands out isn’t just how much she scores, but where she scores from.
She shoots a lot of threes - and when she gets going, those shots start coming from further and further out. In one game, Clark made three 30-foot-plus threes (34ft, 31ft, 31ft) and three more from 27+ feet (28ft, 27ft, 27ft). For context, the three-point line is 22 feet away.
Even more interesting, there have been moments where she’s had a higher percentage chance of scoring from three than from two.
Now think about that for a moment. If you were defending her, would you still do the same thing?
Nearly every defence is set up to stop someone getting to the rim - stand in front, protect the basket. But when someone like Clark is shooting like that, in theory it might make more sense to stand behind her and stop the three, rather than the two. Bear with me. It would look ridiculous. But if you’re adapting to what’s actually happening in real time, it starts to make sense.
It’s funny - spotting those little quirks and asking “does that really make sense?” is probably why I ended up doing what I do. Most edges aren’t obvious. They’re just slightly unusual patterns that don’t quite fit - until you decide to act on them. It also makes me wonder if I should have taken a different approach when my Dad got hot.
“Not a chance old man. Nothing past the flower pot. Keep it close.”
