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Rick Barry Suggests Ben Simmons Should Shoot Free Throws Underhand Like He Did

The Ben Simmons-Philadelphia 76ers saga has finally ended and both parties involved were granted a fresh new start.

The Sixers with NBA superstar James Harden, and Ben Simmons in Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

After a hampered trade demand and failure to cooperate with the team during practices and meetings early in the season, Simmons has shifted his focus on working on his mental health and cited this as one of the reasons why he did not intend to appear in a Sixers game.

Before that, Ben Simmons hadn’t participated in a Sixers game since Game 7 of the second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks in the previous 2021 NBA playoffs.

Simmons had been taking a lot of heat after the team’s embarrassing exit in last year’s playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks. The three-time All-Star specifically failed to deliver, finishing the series with only 9.9 points per game to go along with a dreadful 33.3% free-throw shooting.

Since free throw shooting is one of Simmons’ biggest flaws, an NBA all-time great now had an interesting suggestion. Rick Barry, who shot 90% from the line for his career, while shooting his free throws underhanded, now suggested that Simmons should try his technique. 

Per Mark Stein’s Substack:

He naturally had lots to say when I asked him if he’d like the opportunity to try to work with Ben Simmons on his wayward free-throw shooting….

…He definitely could be fixed,” Barry said of Simmons. “Somebody already told me he said he would never want to do it, but I don’t understand: What difference does it make how you do it? If he was an 80-percent shooter, with his size, he would be like Shaq. You could take him and post up those little guards and he would just abuse them — and he could hope he got fouled. He would be such a dominant factor. He becomes one of the best players in the league.”