INDIANAPOLIS — Game-day shootaround is not a secret to basketball fans, but if they have even heard the term, they don’t know what happens during that behind-the-scenes practice.

Every team does things differently for the somewhat relaxed session of perhaps an hour in length, but every professional team in the NBA and the WBA, every major college team, and certainly others, too, conduct such a workout.

Before a recent game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indiana Fever players took the court in their warmup unis – not game outfits – and ran through sequences of drills, took shots from afar and basically stressed through repetition personal aspects of their games they wished to work on.

 

Freedman

Coach Christy Sides said the point of such shootarounds is focusing players’ minds on the upcoming game, while at the same time keeping things light. “They are trash-talking each other,” Sides said of one way the players do that.

Sometimes, guard Grace Berger said, as a reminder these are pros, players who get paid for their hoops, challenge one another with $100 bets on making shots. Didn’t Michael Jordan do stuff like that at $1,000 a shot? That action spices things up.

Players of today probably think the game-day shootaround was institutionalized from the first tip-off. Not so. It was created by a Hall of Fame player who got bored sitting around his hotel room on game days during road trips.

You have to be an old-timer if you saw Bill Sharman play guard for the Boston Celtics alongside Bob Cousy, perhaps the greatest backcourt in history, between 1951 and 1961.

Sharman, a 6-foot-2, perpetual double-figure scorer, was a brilliant foul shooter, hitting 88.3 percent of his tries. He later coached the short-lived Cleveland Pipers to a championship in the American Basketball League, the Utah Stars to a title in the American Basketball Association and the Los Angeles Lakers to NBA crowns. He is the only person to coach champions in all three leagues and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player and a coach.

In a late-in-life interview with me, Sharman, who died in 2013 at 87, told the story of the original game-day shootarounds. When he was playing for the Celtics, Sharman said he hated just hanging out at the team hotel all day leading up to a night game.

Figuring he could make more productive use of his time, he tried to find gyms nearby and take jump shots and practice those free throws. That became a ritual for Sharman. As he shifted coaching locations, he introduced the shootaround to new teams, spreading his gospel, and now the shootaround is so natural few coaches and players recall its origins.

Today’s players seem fine with the extra workout.

Fever forward Katie Lou Samuelson said she finds the shootaround helpful. There is last-minute tutoring, reminding the players about the opposition’s tendencies.

“It’s good for going over the scouting,” Samuelson said

Whether the shootout helps teams win games or not has not been quantified. The players seem to have become believers it is good for them rather than sleeping in an extra hour or so on game day.

Fever center Aliyah Boston, who turned in her best game of the season Thursday night with 27 points and 13 rebounds in a 91-84 victory over Atlanta, brings a superstitious outlook to the shootaround.

“You get your missed shots out of the way,” Boston said.

Certainly, that is the power of positive thinking, since in-game shots count and shootaround shots don’t, but it is often said confidence is a major element in accurate shooting.

Whether Boston’s point is disputable or not, one other reason she thinks shootaround time is valuable is the mini-workout, breaking a sweat.

“You get a good warmup,” Boston said.

Anyone who has competed on a sports team knows there are unique dynamics for each bunch. There are habits introduced, players get teased about individual quirks, nicknames are assigned.

Samuelson said Sides is right about the trash-talking at shootarounds. But the style is not mean, she said, holding back on providing examples of what is said.

“We’re a sweet bunch,” Samuelson said.

That’s a whole ‘nother topic. If the commentary is sweet, can it be considered trash talking at all?