Bob Cousy in a cameo role fails to miss any of his free throws filming a scene for the 1994 film Blue Chips, prompting actor Nick Nolte's famous unscripted line "Don't you ever miss?".
I met Bob Cousy about 1990 (before this movie), he was very cool, not at all egotistical or stuck up. I asked him if he ever played basketball any more, he laughed and said, "I shoot free throws once in a while, but that's about it." He wasn't lying.
His ego was so big back in the day that to this day, the only rational reason that was ever given for Cousy and the Royals trading Oscar Robertson was that Cousy feared Oscar would break his record. The Royals/Kings have been shit ever since, save for a three-year stretch capped off by getting screwed
@@SethKasso …that assertion is wildly inaccurate…there was no record to be broken…Cousy saw the offensive was not working with Robertson and as coach, needed to make a change. He may or may not have been right but it was his decision to make….that decision was questioned by Robertson fans but Oscar actually benefitted by the trade. Cooz was a outstanding student of the game but he was not vindictive…
'That's the idea of the game'.. Moments later: 'He can't even miss left handed' haha. Little know fact for yall: Cousy broke his hand while in high school and became ambidextrous. He attributed the accident as a blessing because he got good with both hands. Legend.
eazi, My late uncle Jimmy who was a big fan of basketball and who followed the Celtics as a little boy back during the infancy of the NBA told me a story where Red Auerbach was vying for another player during the draft that involved the young Bob Cousy. Not sure if it was done by the lottery system that we have today but Auerbach did not get this one player that he was really hoping for and instead he was dealt Bob Cousy. Auerbach pissed as hell seeing that he was being dealt Cousy threw his draft sheet down and said "God Dammit I didn't want this guy" Well as they say the "Rest is History". Just thought you might appreciate this TRUE STORY on the LEGEND BOB COUSY. Cheers
Same thing happened to me. Broke my left wrist when I was 15 and became a right handed shooter for the rest of my life. Gained the ability to do things with the ball with both hands once I healed. To this day I am left handed but shoot right handed.
Interesting. I used to box when i was a kid. Hurt my left knee once and decided i felt more comfortable with it farthest away from my opponent. Planned on only fighting southpaw for a few days until my knee stopped hurting. I got so used to my power hand being closest to my opponent that i never went righty again.
Somebody tell this to that 🤡 JJ Reddick. He was very disrespectful of Cousy just the other day. Skills and are skills and Cousy clear has fundamental skill at a supreme level.
@@matts4240 don't forget the shoes. Your feet are where your shot starts. He's in leather soled shoes with wooden heels that have brads tacked into them. He's probably slipping on that hardwood floor.
@@MaybeDHitHim Red Auerbach would say it's all in the fundamentals. Cousy's form here is perfect, even if it's old time and easy to swat. He's gonna sink the rock every single time because he's trained his body to do that perfectly from that distance to a point where it's scientifically and statistically reliable. It's incredible. That's something that's been lost when the old school form stopped being used.
In 1953, Cousy shot 32 free throws in an NBA Playoff game. He hit 30 of them. It's a record that still stands to this day as the most free throws made in a single game, regular season or post season.
You know most nba players shoot 90% + practice rt? It’s the pressure of the game, the bright lights, the fatigue. You sound like somebody new to basketball.
Bird is documented to have done similar shooting when he was coaching the Pacers - and as President of the club for many years after that. Not sure if he was still doing it at 66, but likely.
Don't forget, as we age, our muscles lose mass and power. The motions one perfects in youth won't work automatically at Cousy's age. Thus, he is adapting his shot to the weaker muscles he had when this was filmed, and not just repeating his shot from his prime. To me, this is truly a wonderful performance. What an awesome athlete.
@@jamespuso1627 There's a vid of steph curry making 100+ 3s in a row in practice but his career is 40%. Pressure and a crowd is always way more important than just practicing.
@@willshad No, not fake. I remember it was one of the topics of conversation when they promo'd the movie on talk shows back when it was made and everyone confirmed Cousy really made the shots. Including Nolte.
Reminds me of the Jerry West video where Jerry is shooting while talking to kids at a camp and never misses. What's interesting to me is how shooting technique has changed since the days Cousy played but he could still score the basketball, what a great player. Thanks for another excellent video!
Larry Bird had a video explaining his shot, and how it's important not to crank the ball too far. Still didn't miss. Some men can't help but remind us that basketball is still a child's game at heart.
Cousy's shooting style is really a vestige of the one-hand push shot of the 1940s before the jump shot came in. Hank Luisetti of Stanford in the 1930s was the first one to shoot running one-handers which were the ancestor of today's jump shot. Before that, players mostly shot two-hand set shots.
My father as a kid was on a Boys Club team that won the New England Championship. Their coach was Charles "Stretch" Murphy who played at Purdue before there was an NBA and then was the local Boys Club Director. To show the kids that they shouldn't miss free throws because you are always 15 ft. away and the hoop is always 10 ft. high no matter where you play, he had the kids blindfold him. He made 10 out of 10 free throws.
Love Nate "Tiny" Archibald's story of Bob Cousy and him. It was Bob Cousy's encouragement and coaching that led to Tiny's great career. Bob Cousy had the faith and confidence in Nate Archibald that Nate has never forgotten. Bob Cousy is such a forgotten player, but, the players remember.
@@chipschannel9494 my comment about Shaq was a “knock” on him. Shaq is a very good example when certain things come easy or naturally then they focus on that and rely on it if sufficient enough. Shaq never worked hard enough in developing other parts of his game. If he did he probably could have won 10 titles. The worst for Shaq was when he used to “throw” free throws. 😂🤣. He used to launch then from the right side of his head. Horrible technique. He at least switched to where he was shooting from above his head (center) but he used to “flick” the ball up there. Sometimes line drive. No arc. Since Shaq had big hands Magic Johnson used to mimick a “push” style for Shaq. He never listened. Always some excuse. I make them when it counts. The issue was mental. Late in close games Shaq would shy away from getting the ball because he didn’t want to get fouled. Kobe took most of the clutch shots and free throws. Kobe said he always worked on the fundamentals because he wasn’t gifted athletically as others when like in junior high.
While playing for Columbia, our father played against Cousy while he was playing for Holy Cross. Dad was tasked with guarding him and always said that he was the greatest ball player he'd ever seen.
When I was a kid 11 & 12 y/o (1980ish) a Raquetball club opened up a mile from my house. Bob Cousy was somehow involved, possibly part owner. My folks sent me to summer camp there, to learn to play raquetball and get me tf out of their hair for 6 or 7 hours a day ... I went for 2 summers in a row. Each year Bob Cousy would show up and play raquetball with each kid, a quick game to 15. Can't remember who won, but definitely remember meeting Mr. cousy. I've worked music industry adjacent for nearly 20 years, in operations helping build shows mostly on the East Coast. I've met some world famous musicians in my day, but I still tell people Bob Cousy is the best 'Celebrity' I've ever met.
When we were kids we'd pretend to be our favorite basketball player. "I want to be Bob Cousy! " I would say. " No! I want to be Bob Cousy!" My friend would say. He was just so much better than anyone else. He was in a class all by himself.
Ten for ten. If you can shoot you can shoot. After NBA went 117-38 as coach at Boston College. Almost got then Lew Alcindor out of Power Memorial Panthers..
This guy was pretty good. He played in the NBA, and that's pretty good. He was an all-star, and that's pretty good. He even won multiple titles, and that's pretty good. They say he was one of the first stars of the league, and that's pretty good. Man, this guy was pretty good.
Those plumbers played 82 games a year in Chuck Taylors and practiced in community college gymasiums. Let's see today's stars do that for a month, much less an entire career.
@@username-zj9id If I had to guess, its so Nick Nolte's character could get a chance to shoot. Since Cousey never misses, Nolte couldn't get his turn before the scene played out.
@@johnmitchell9180 Cousy won an NCAA title and 6 NBA rings, Pistol Pete didn't win jack at LSU thanks to his overbearing father and never won a ring either.
@@johnmitchell9180Cousy didn’t win a championship until Bill Russell arrived. Hmm, must be a coincidence, right? Just as stupid as saying Pistol wasn’t a winner, right? If only Pistol had better teammates.
A fact not known by some: Bob Cousy played for the Sacramento Kings! While, at that time they were the Cincinatti Royals and he played seven games for them in the 1969-70 season at age 41 in an successful effort to boost ticket sales..
Watch the old videos of the Celts and see how he shot in games, his lefthanded hook shot from distance off the board was ridiculous... his ball handling was 1950's e.g. they didn't let them carry the ball when they dribbled but he could definitely shoot...
I loved Cousy as a commentator....when the Celtics would screw up, he was all over them....the Celtics owners were less than pleased but Cousy remained Cousy....
Another great video! I love that you remind these airhead talking point bozos at ESPN that there have been incredible players on ALL eras that deserve respect. Cooz was a fine player and deserves his props.
All you youngsters think that age robs a player of skills? I play every week with a 75 year old who will hit 80+% of his free throws in tournaments. He was never an NBA star. We can no longer compete with thirty year olds, and our vertical leaps are measured in sheets of paper, but old men can still play basketball, run the floor and shoot just fine, thank you! And we can argue with referees as well as any twenty year old!
"Everybody in the country's buying these kids outta high school... Givin' em cars, money under the table." I can see why this is in the Wilt Chamberlain Archive.
The left handed shot at the end Cousy did that because he wanted to prove people "I can easily dribble or shoot left" wtf that rumor came from like Deion not tackling, Jordan gambling, Phelps weed, hell I'm hearing Jerry Rice used Stickum, all MLB roid rumors.....I mean wtf when a player retires the bs roll I guess
If you heard the back story, you would realize how funny Nick,s (unscripted) comments about him not missing were. The day before this shot was filmed. a 30 something Shakal O,Neil missed 14 out of 15 free throws !
Cousy with that accent sounds like he might be from New York or Massachusetts. Somewhere up there in the northeast. Nice job showing up his shooting stroke! =)
It’s not the free throws. It’s the catching of the ball. When he catches the ball, it’s like a magnet. It’s like the hands are grasping both sides, at the same time, the sound is singular. There’s no sound of two hands catching the ball. It’s really magical.
Interesting all the different perceptions and perspectives...NBA greats, of which there are many...were the best in theirs era's and would likely be great players in any era...if it's so easy to accomplish what the greatest players have why haven't more done it ??? Because they were great athletes and basketball players...❤❤❤❤
Lots of comments about his left hand shot. When he was in high school, he fell out of a tree and broke his right hand which forced him to play lefty. He later referred to this as a "fortunate event" because it improved his overall game. It also impressed the coach at his high school who invited him to try out for the JV team. That, coupled with his work ethic, started him on the path to legend we honor today.
I played high school ball and have always been extremely right hand dominant. I could shoot a layup ok from the left but not great. If you can’t go to your left very well (or whichever your non dominant side is) a good defensive player will eat you alive in man defense, even in high school. You just over play the strong side and force the player go the other way.
This was shot in my high school gym! “Case Arena,” home of The Frankfort Hotdogs, in Frankfort, IN. I was 13 years old, and there for the filming! It was surreal having Shaq, Penny, Nick Nolte, Dicky V, Ed O’Neil (Al Bundy,) roaming our high school and middle school campus for a couple weeks. You can see me in the film, rushing the floor after Western beats Indiana at the buzzer, on a Shaquille O’Neal ally-oop! Fun fact: The fictional teams played an actual 40 minute game. Western University, with Shaq and Penny, actually lost the game to the IU team in real life. They went back and filmed the game winning ally-oop after the game was over. It was a lot of fun!
Nick Nolte is underrated in my opinion. Hilarious in "Beverly Hills Cop" to "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" to "A Walk in the Woods" recently with Robert Redford. But he was bone chilling in "A Thin Red Line". Iconic talent.
He's doing a free throw the same way he does a regular jump shot. That way he doesn't need to practice two different shots. Maybe someone whos struggling with free throws can take away something from this like Big men. As long as it doesn't leave the ground, maybe an on-ground floater would work for big guys.
For his career in regular season Cousey averaged 80.3% from FT% in his career playoff he averaged 80.1% from FT%. That is peak consistency right there.
Paul George has a higher career FT% than bob cousy and a 5x better athlete. Bob Cousy is not pulling up for contested 30 footers over 6'6 defenders like Curry. Stop with the nonsense
My post office box was right next to Bob's. I would see him just about every Saturday morning picking up the mail at the West Side Post Office in Worcester, Mass.
That scene had cuts and edits, so there is no way to know if he truly made all those shots consecutively. Only anyone who was on set that day would know.
I am shocked, I never knew that was Bob cousy ,, Everytime I do a fantasy draft on 2k and use my all white team ,, I always pick cousy to run the point,,,
I just realised who this guy was because I only got into basketball recently. I knew a lot of the other guys from this film like Shaq, Penny, Larry Bird but never knew Bob Cousy. First NBA MVP, that’s mad.
No, the first would have been George Mikan - but Bob DID win MVP the year Bill Russell entered the league (but Bill only played part of the year that year, Olympics tied him up for the first third or so of the season).
@@bricefleckenstein9666 Funny story about that. Tom Heinsohn of the Celtics won Rookie of The Year that year and Russell walked up to him and said "you should give me half of that ROY money". Heinsohn started laughing but then realized Russell was NOT joking.🤣
@@KHayes666 That's also the event that caused Bill to decide that the only stat that mattered was wins, and the only acolade championships. He has stated a few times that he felt "robbed" on that ROY decision - and on occasional other later "acolade" decisions (but not the MVP he lost to West, even BILL thought that one was earned in full).
