"It's kind of weird shooting one-handed" - Jeremy Sochan holds Gregg Popovich responsible for his Shaquille O'Neal-like free throw form
Apart from his colorful hair shades, San Antonio Spurs sophomore Jeremy Sochan is also known for shooting his free throws one-handed, and he said coach Gregg Popovich was responsible for it.
His unorthodox form has drawn comparison to that of NBA great Shaquille O’Neal. But unlike "The Big Diesel", the Polish-American player from Baylor is seemingly having more success in making his free throws.
In his rookie year, Jeremy Sochan was a 69.8% shooter from the charity stripe while Shaq throughout his career was good for 52.7%.
In one of the episodes of Season 2 of "Sessions", the 20-year-old power forward shared that Spurs coach Popovich actually was the one who wanted him to shoot his free throws one-handed.
Sochan said:
"Happened out of nowhere, really... I was with coach [Brett] Brown working on my shot and we would do one-handed stuff and I would go on like streaks of just making a bunch of one-handed shots. And then coach Pop is like, 'Yo, come here.' And I'm like, 'What's up, coach?' And he's like, 'You're shooting one-handed.' Straight up."
Sochan was selected No. 9 by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2022 NBA draft after playing a season at Baylor.
The 6-foot-9 player went on to have a solid rookie season last year, playing 56 games and averaging 11 points, on 45.3% shooting from the field, 5.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 26 minutes on the floor.
It was a difficult season for San Antonio, however, as it bottom-scraped and finished last in the Western Conference with a 22-60 record.
This season, Sochan is expected to continue to be an integral part of the Spurs, along with the team’s other young cogs, which now include French player and No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama.
In this year’s NBA Summer League, Spurs coach Matt Nielson told "Sports Illustrated" that Jeremy Sochan is one of the vocal leaders in the team and he has been effective on it:
"Jeremy's [been] a good influence on the guys. [Both the regular roster] and the Summer League team. I credit to Jeremy and the way he goes about it. It's really good, [and] it will be pretty helpful for us moving forward."
10 players with the worst free throw percentage in NBA history
Here are the players with the worst free throw percentage, with a minimum of 1,200 free throws missed, ever in NBA history:
1. Ben Wallace (41.4%) 1,570 misses
2. Andre Drummond (47.5%) 1,778 misses
3. DeAndre Jordan (47.5%) 1,895 misses
4. Wilt Chamberlain (51.1%) 5,805 misses
5. Shaquille O’Neal (52.7%) 5,317 misses
6. Johnny Green (55.3%) 1,891 misses
7. Bill Russell (56.1%) 2,466 misses
8. Dwight Howard (56.7%) 4,094 misses
9. Josh Smith (63.2%) 1,380 misses
10. Walt Bellamy (63.2%) 2,975 misses