Houston Rockets rookie Chinanu Onuaku made his NBA regular season debut on Monday, and with it, brought a sight rarely seen in the NBA: an underhanded free throw.
Rockets’ Chinanu Onuaku drains his 1st underhand free throw in the NBA
The underhanded free throw isn’t new to the NBA, but hasn’t been seen regularly since Rick Barry used the technique in the late 1970s.
Onuaku isn’t doing it just for show, either. He adopted the technique prior to his sophomore season at Louisville. It worked reasonable well with Onuaku’s free-throw percentage improving from 46.7 percent to 58.9 percent.
He’s stuck with the technique during his rookie season in the NBA, using it successfully during the preseason. He finally got into a regular season game and even landed at the free-throw line to officially bring back the underhanded free throw.
