Kobe Bryant’s Finger and Geometry
January 11th, 2010
Bill Bridges put this in the comments, but it is too good not to make its own post.
The accuracy required for a player to hit a mid-range jump shot, let alone 3 pointers is astounding. Consider this. The inside rim of the hoop is 18″ in diameter. The Ball is 9.54″ in diameter. If the ball lands exactly in the middle of the hoop, the distance between the skin of the ball and the hoop is 4.2″. Let’s assume that if the ball is more than 4.2″ away from dead center that the shot is more likely to miss than go in. 4.2″ is not a lot of room for error. Players cannot be so accurate by measuring their shots. Rather, the accuracy comes from over 10,000 hours of repetition during which the shot is generated not by intent, but by muscle memory.
