Phill Jones admits any huge launch is more luck than skill. Photo / Getty Images
Phill Jones' long-range bomb against the Hawks last week may have looked like a one-off fluke - but it wasn't.
The sharp-shooting Tall Blacks ace has sunk a basket from that range before, in almost identical circumstances, playing for the Otago Nuggets in the New Zealand NBL.
"My
first game back from Europe I was having an absolutely shocking game, couldn't score a basket," Jones said.
"Right at the end of the first half I got a rebound that bounced out to the free throw line.
"I turned around and threw it and it did exactly the same thing."
Jones admitted the 22-metre show stopper against the Hawks owed more to luck than skill, although the players regularly practised - and made - shots from the halfway line.
"The further out you get the luckier it becomes," he said.
"It's more luck than skill, but we'll mess around and shoot from halfway and, from that range you can work on it, get it down to a reasonably fine art.
"When we do halfway shots, I usually turn around and shoot it backwards, one-handed over my head.
"It's a real technique thing. Eight times out of 10 I'll hit the hoop. I have actually made one like that from three-quarter court."
He described last Thursday's effort as "more of a chest pass sort of a heave".
Jones said he hadn't given too much thought to the physics involved in getting the ball through the hoop from such long range.
"With two seconds on the clock you don't get enough time to think about that.
"You need everything to be right. You need someone to throw you the ball and you need time on the clock. It happens, but I can't remember doing it too many times."
Happily for Jones, his parents taped the game and he'll be adding the play to his personal highlights collection.
