Skiles' Shoulder Shot

In high school Scott Skiles shot free throws from the shoulder.  Creating a simple document of this is the main reason I extracted and uploaded it here, taken from the 1982 Indiana Basketball State Final game between Gary Roosevelt and Plymouth.

Background:
Anthony Stewart must have had icewater in his veins, what with the way he kept Gary Roosevelt in it, especially in double overtime.  The superior team, in my opinion, lost this game.

But I am biased.  Plymouth had just beaten Indianapolis Cathedral in the semifinal game earlier that morning, thanks in large part to 30 points from Skiles.  I had been hoping against hope that a family friend, Tim Hoffman, who played for Cathedral, would return for a potential final game.

Hoffman was a First Team All-Defense guard, who missed the Final Four with mononucleosis after an All-Regional performance against city powerhouses Howe and Washington.  The standout star guard for the latter opponent, Shelton Smith, credited Hoffman's stifling defense as being decisive in Cathedral's win.  Once they had gotten past their fellow Indy teams to win the Indianapolis Regional, they had a relatively easy road of it in winning the Semi-State.

But the following week Hoffman got severely ill and was forced to sit out the rest of the way.  With a dream of playing the final four fading, he watched from the bench as his team lost to Skiles' Plymouth by three points .

Skiles would go on to win the Indiana State Championship. If you ask me, he was lucky. Great player, for sure; you don't get to the pros unless you are.  To date, he still holds the record for most assists in an NBA game with 30.

So here he is, final game in high school, with his shoulder shot from the stripe. I wonder who made him change that.