Could you make a shot from half court?

Yeah, I hit one yesterday. Really. 

But that other effort was really, really substandard.

I apologize for the repeated, yet appropriate use of 'really'.  

One of my best friends couldn't even do that good.  He's a lifelong nerd computer programmer.  He has absolutely no physical coordination in his body.

He was at my house once a long time ago and my boys wanted to go outside and play catch.  My son tossed the ball to him easy and it hit him in the chest and he flung his arms up about a half second after it hit him.  He then picked up the ball to throw it and threw it into his shoes.  He picked it up again and did the same thing.  He didn't physically have the coordination to throw a ball any distance, it was the strangest thing I've ever seen.

When I was in high school at an away basketball game (I was a benchrider on the JV squad), the school had a drawing for a change to win $100 and a large-screen color TV (hey, this was 1980). Anyway, they drew a name, and the guy came out to the court. In order to win the $100, he had to make a free throw. He missed, bouncing it off the side of the rim.

Then they took him out to half-court, and if he made that shot, he got the TV. The place was silent. The echo of him bouncing the ball...

Up...

SWISH! Nothing but net. The crowd went wild. SUCH a lucky shot.

Better than I ever did.

When I was in college, they used to draw random students to come on to the court to try 1/2 court shots and win money.  Being a small college (Eastern Illinois), the gym was basically open for pick up games all the time.  A lot of the gym rats would practice these shots on the actual court and got pretty good at them.  So good, that they started making these probably better than 50% of the time, costing the sponsor quite a few bucks.

EIU then changed the rules so you had to make 2 shots to win the money (they also increased the money since this was more of a challenge).  Yep, you guessed it, these guys were still making them.

I think I've done it twice in my lifetime... out of around 300 attempts.  I can say that no matter what, I can get the ball within at least 10 feet from the rim.  ANd that's coming from a former wrestler which by definition, makes me just about the WORST basketball player in the world!!!

That shot was pretty pathetic.  Very JLo and Bababooie first pitch.

One of my friends did at one of those half-time games where you win $1000 - here's the video

Ha - that video was awesome.  The best part is that you could see the ref laughing at him.

I don't think he would have made it from the free throw line.

Did a session with my trainer on the court.  I come up with an exercise, then he would.  Then he'd make me shoot to determine my fate.  Surprised him (and me) when I drained 3 out of 4.  I don't remember the last time I touched a basketball.  

Did he win the money?  He stepped over the line.

Hello....

I can make them pretty easily.  We used to play around doing that in BBall practice all the time.  I didn't make them OFTEN, but would be within the general area of the rim on all of them.

I'm assuming he got overzealous, tried too hard, and the ball went off the side of his hand.  Sort of like when John Elway would try to throw a pass, and it would slip out of  his hand and end up going backwards.  This didn't happen often, but a couple times a season, for sure.

Not much worse than this...

http://youtu.be/x-MW5tkTWtQ

EIU RULES!  GO PANTHERS!

And yeah, I can make a half court shot.