In the past, the New York Knicks have wished “living legend” Jim Couch a happy birthday on the jumbotron at Madison Square Garden, a tradition that goes back to Ernie Grunfeld. Couch is one,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whom Couch used to push in a baby carriage while Malone’s father, Brendan, was coaching at same courts as Couch. “There are certain people in the city who have stood the test of time and Mr. “The most unguardable shot in NBA history,” said the reigning scoring king LeBron James, of Kareem’s skyhook.Ĭouch is famous too, if only among the people who met him on the basketball courts of New York. One of the greatest to ever play, and for 39 years was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
After about a year, he was pretty good at it.”Ībdul-Jabbar is a legend. When I got him I refined it a little bit. “He was never late (for practice),” Couch said. Aim for the rim, not the backboard, were Couch’s instructions. A slight bend of the elbow, a cup of the hand, and a soft flick of the wrist. (The Athletic)Ĭouch said that he and Abdul-Jabbar met each afternoon at 4 o’clock in the park, to iron out the hook shot. Jim Couch in front of the Dyckman basketball court. That’s the way he used to shoot it, left-handed and right-handed.” “Instead of trying to get it to the rim, he would hit it off the backboard real hard.
“It sounded like he was going to tear the whole thing down,” Couch said. Then he saw Abdul-Jabbar, age 13 and in the eighth grade, cock his right arm back like it was a catapult and hurl the ball in a straight line toward the board. One day in the spring of 1959, Couch was walking along Nagel Avenue, past Kareem’s family apartment, toward the court and the fence, when he was startled by a terrible noise.Ĭouch looked inside and the backboard, supported by a single pole, seemed to be wavering. The only way in was through a little slit in the chain-link fabric, and Abdul-Jabbar had to duck and slide to cross under, even as a boy. The Dyckman court was enclosed on three sides by a fence and on the other by an apartment building. More importantly, he remembers when, according to him, he helped Kareem Abdul-Jabbar learn to shoot the skyhook.
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