By: The White President
Years ago I attended George Mason University basketball camp headed by Paul Westhead. Each day we had a guest speaker, including some NBA stars like Washington Bullet Doug Overton. (WOW!)
One day our speaker was not an NBA player, so all the kids were upset. It was a shooting coach that was going to teach us how to shoot. The guy came in and introduced himself and started to lecture about the importance of shooting. During his entire lecture, he swished foul shot after foul shot. He missed 0 shots in fifteen minutes, and was talking the entire time.
As the lecture continued, he switched to shooting one handed foul shots. Swish, Swish, Swish. He didn’t miss one shot.
Next, he went into his gym bag and grabbed what appeared to be a baseball hat. This hat was a little different because there was a hand glued to the brim. The wearer of the hat could not clearly see out of it due to the giant hand in the face, hense the name “Hand In The Face Hat”.
The shooting instructor put on the hat and began to drain jumpers from all over the court. I think he may have actually missed 2 shots with this hat on. It was really amazing. The entire time, talking and showing us how to use perfect shooting form.
He had to be the greatest shooter I will ever see, and his name is Dave Hopla. He was just added to the Wizards staff. The Wizards web site reports:
Prior to joining the Raptors staff on November 26, 2006, the Raptors ranked 24th in the NBA with a .439 field goal percentage through the first 13 games of the season. Under Hopla’s direction, the Raptors finished the season ranked 11th in the league with at .463 field goal percentage. Additionally, the Raptors recorded top 10 finishes in free throw percentage (2nd) and three-point field goal percentage (7th).
Hopla is also responsible for helping inspire Gilbert Arenas to keep track of his shootings. (According to Gilbert Arenas’ Blog)
Actually, the other day while I was shooting, I’ve seen Dave Hopla. He’s a shooting coach for Toronto and he worked with me when I was in junior high and high school.
When I saw him, he said he had his worst shooting performance of the year … He missed six out of 187 shots! Right now he’s shooting 99.3 percent for the summer. That’s who I compete against because he always told me to keep track of what you shoot.
Well now Dave Hopla is going to be helping ALL the Wizards improve their shooting percentages. I think this could be a very good thing.