Attention all young basketball players (or NBA players who happen to be watching this video [reveal yourself Luke Babbitt I know you’re out there]): this video is a good example of why you ALWAYS heave up a shot to end a quarter. Sometimes it goes in and your team gets three points closer to winning the game! (Troy Brown’s team wasn’t close to winning even with the shot, but they COULD HAVE BEEN, if the circumstances had been different.) Not only that, but if you have enough arm strength and a clear enough look at the rim, you’re usually at least going to hit backboard on these types of shots. I’m always annoyed by NBA players who protect their percentages by just holding the ball as the buzzer goes off, or even worse, purposely timing the shot to be released well after the buzzer sounds.
Why would you want to protect your percentages anyway? Nobody cares about shooting percentages these days except for a certain NBA highlight maker who uses basic box-score stats to make unfair assumptions about players. The guy who runs that channel is an idiot, though, and you shouldn’t be worried if your missed three-point heave brings down your percentage a little bit. He’s really the only one who’s going to hold it against you. And if it still really bothers you, make sure to find a teammate who is willing to shoot those shots so at least somebody on the team has the chance to score those points.
Note: this advice does not apply if you have some kind of stipulation in your contract that you make more money if you shoot a certain percentage from the field. In that case, it is perfectly acceptable to only shoot shots that you have a pretty good chance of making.