by Dr. Old School
If you’re like me and have been watching the sorry state of basketball these last five decades, you surely yearn for the good old days when young people knew how to play the game. Defense… remember that? Hah! Gone with the wind! Teamwork… where’s the “me” in it? Well, Old School is going to do something about it; he’s going to teach young people the grand old art of basketball. We’ll start with this column on the lost art of the behind-the-back pass to oneself or the BTBPTY for short.
You remember that move, don’t ya? Bob Cousey, the greatest guard of all time, patented it and Old School, when he was just a young feller, practiced it for hours on end until he could execute. Oh yes, practice, another word like “dumb jock” that has completely disappeared from the vocabulary of today’s youth, who seem only to know that F-word, and it don’t stand for “fantastic”.
Okey-dokey… here it is, kids. How to execute the move the Cousey and Old School were famous for. First of all, the move cannot be learned all at once. The best thing to do is to break it down into its components, just like old Galileo recommended back in the day. (He wasn’t a b-ball player but he had a mean telescope and a dynamite methodology.)
Anyway, just begin by putting a ball in your right hand (unless you’re a left-hander, then reverse the procedure). With your one hand, move the ball behind your back and then let the other hand receive it. Practice that over and over again until it gets natural. You young fellers out there, use a small ball until you get the hang of it.
Now you are ready for the most difficult part, the dribble with the behind-the back pass to yourself without traveling. (Once you get to the “pros”, you won’t have to worry about the “travel”.)
Start about at the foul line on the right side. Dribble with your left foot proceeding and begin to move the ball around to the other side just as you are moving to your right foot. Then take the open shot. This simple diagram should make it clear. (X is the ball handler and O is the defensive opponent. I borrowed the symbols from Holy Cross’ soccer play book.)
The shot will always be there because of the inherent deception of the move. When your opponent sees the ball disappearing behind your back, he will obviously correct to the other side and then you’ve got him. Layup… no flashy dunk, of course. It works every time and, as we used to say (pardon my language), you can “fox your opponent’s jock off.” Remember, the pass is to yourself not to your teammate. Its genius is that the ball always returns to your dominant hand. You show me an ambidextrous dude and I show you someone who can’t make up his mind.
This maneuver is so much better than the new fangled “crossover dribble”, in which I cannot see the point for the life of me. It fools no one! Just standing there, showing off and going nowhere! Now, Old School had short legs in those halcyon days of yore, so the crossover was out of his game. But what good would it have done anyways? No, the “Cous” and I tore up the court with the BTBPTY move.
In future columns, we will look at the much-neglected “underhand scoop shot”, the almost extinct “set shot”, and the very undervalued “2-1-2” zone defense.