i love watching nice passes. crisp bounce passes, bullet skip passes, quick touch passes. i'm weird like that.
the vast majority of passes travel in straight lines - after all, using proper fundamental technique (following through by finishing with your thumbs pointing down) will result in balls thrown with backspin on them.
but there are times when using sidespin is necessary, like on curl passes on post entry feeds where the passer needs to get the ball around an on-ball defender.
i particularly enjoy when they're used in the open court to expand a passing lane / window though.
like this beauty from jason kidd to kerry kittles:
kidd's got quite a few of these in his career. here's him threading the needle between two los angeles clippers defenders:
and his famous bowling ball pass:
rajon rondo threw a pretty one to e'twaun moore one time:
d'angelo russell made this ridiculous one-handed delivery in a set play when he was at ohio state:
there are no open passing lanes / windows in any of these plays - look at where each receiver is when each pass is about to be released:
all i can say is, i'm grateful for the existence of friction.
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update (10/18/20): found this jr smith one-handed bowling ball pass to the referee that definitely belongs in here:
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