Sailors and Steamrollers - by Malcolm Burnley

Authors and Newswriters

Trace the origins of modern basketball, and you'll come across a rural road in Hillsdale, Wyoming. there is no landmark or statue, but on a family farm there, eighty years ago, a sibling rivalry forever transformed the sport. Bud was the oldestĀ  by four years, and his 6' 5" frame towered over his younger sibling, Kenny, when they played one-on-one out back. Kenny routinely lost, forcing him to craft a new strategy against his dominant brother. So he invented and slowly patented the shot that carried him to college, to the pros, and into basketball lore. At a time when the two-handed set shot was the game's pre-eminent offensive weapon, when player's feet scarcely left the hardwood, Kenny Sailors used a 36-inch vertical leap to rise above his flat-footed opponents and release the ball at a superior trajectory. His trick was given many names at first, but soon became popularized as the "jump-shot".

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