Morris Peterson: King Of The Circus Shot

Although he was once a sneaky athlete, Morris Peterson was never known as one of the league’s most spectacular players… probably because he never was–not even close.  As a matter of fact, he was predominantly a catch-and-shoot three-point gunner.  When it comes to shots that are downright strange, though, has anyone made more than Mo Pete?  I think not, and I’m about to make my case.

Take a look at the following mix.  According to it’s title, all of the footage is from the ’04/05 season…

There are more bizarre layups shown in that video than most NBA players make in their careers.  That’s one season of Mo Pete.  I recall watching the Raptors back in the day and thinking, man, this dude makes a f@cking lucky shot every other game.  How he would even end up in so many of the situations that resulted in crazy shot attempts… I have no idea.

Backwards, two-handed layup while falling to the floor?  Just another drive to the bucket for Mo Pete.

I assume that many would crown Mo’s longtime Craptor teammate Vince Carter the NBA’s king of circus shots.  While VC is most definitely the decade’s highlight master, I wouldn’t take his array of circus shots over Mo Pete’s.  Has Vince Carter–or anyone else, for that matter–ever made a blindfolded layup?

If so, I’ve never seen the footage.  The odds of the existence of a blindfolded layup that yours truly hasn’t seen?  Slim.

Now, before you go calling me crazy for picking Mo Pete over VC, and MJ, and Dr. J, and D-Wade, and the rest of the NBA’s all-time great layuppers, let’s get one thing straight: I’m talking circus shots.  Shots that have no business going through the hoop.  Shots that appear to involve far less skill than they do luck.  Shots that no one would ever have practiced–not even one time.  Yes, the players I listed a moment ago made legendary careers out of converting difficult shots.  Time after time, they blew your mind with their ability to put the ball in the basket in astonishing ways.  However, no one makes a career out of knocking down circus shots.  Circus shots are, by nature, bad shots.  They are derived from awkward attempts that never should’ve been released in the first place.  VC, MJ, etc. took (and made) a few of those, but the majority of their shots were good ones; that’s why they were allowed to shoot so many.  There’s a difference between a difficult shot and a circus shot… that’s all I’m saying.

Morris Peterson?  He shot 9.2 times per game for his career.  Almost four of those attempts were threes.  That doesn’t leave a lot of room for drives to the basket, let alone such an abundance of unusual finishes.  Per two-point attempt, Mo Pete has to be the leader in “WTF” shots.  Hell, he even hit circus shots from three-point land.


And that, my friends, is why Morris Peterson is king of the circus shot.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>