Sports Football Isl

I still remember watching that 2018 Reinforced Conference game where a young Belen was just starting to find her footing at National University-Nazareth School. She was playing for champion team Balipure at the time, and honestly? She couldn't buy a basket that night. The ball kept rattling out, those near-misses that make you wince because you know how much work goes into each shot. It got me thinking about all the legendary NBA players who've experienced similar struggles, and how shooting slumps can haunt even the greatest athletes.

The reality is, every shooter goes through rough patches. When we talk about the most missed shots in NBA history, the numbers are staggering. Kobe Bryant leads this unfortunate category with over 14,000 missed field goals throughout his career. LeBron James isn't far behind, missing approximately 13,500 shots and counting. What's fascinating isn't just the volume of misses, but how these players responded. I've always believed that the true measure of a shooter isn't how many they make, but how they handle missing.

Looking back at that Balipure game, what impressed me wasn't that Belen kept missing - it was that she kept shooting. Same with NBA legends. Ray Allen, who missed nearly 7,500 three-pointers in his career, would often stay hours after practice taking the exact same shots he'd missed in games. There's something beautiful about that persistence. Steph Curry, despite being the greatest shooter ever, has missed about 4,200 threes and counting. Yet his shooting form never changes, his release never wavers. That's the mentality I admire - the absolute refusal to let misses define your game.

What separates good shooters from great ones is how they overcome these slumps. I've spoken with shooting coaches who emphasize the mental aspect more than mechanical adjustments. One coach told me, "The best shooters have amnesia - they forget the last miss immediately." That's why players like Reggie Miller, who missed over 6,900 threes, could hit game-winners with ice in his veins. He'd miss five in a row, then take the sixth without hesitation.

The psychology behind shooting slumps fascinates me. When I watch players like Klay Thompson during his famous slumps, I notice he simplifies everything. Instead of complicated moves, he goes back to fundamentals: square to the basket, elbow in, follow through. It's what young players like Belen had to learn - when nothing's falling, you don't reinvent your shot, you trust it.

Honestly, I think we focus too much on shooting percentages and not enough on resilience. The players I respect most aren't necessarily the ones with the highest field goal percentages, but those who keep shooting through the tough stretches. That 2018 game taught me that missing is part of the process. Every missed shot by Belen that night was actually progress - she was learning what didn't work, building the foundation for what would.

At the end of the day, basketball is about courage as much as skill. It takes guts to keep shooting when you're 0-for-7, or to take the game-winning shot after missing your last five attempts. The most missed shots in NBA history and how players overcome shooting slumps tells us something important about success in any field: it's not about never failing, but about how quickly you get back up and try again. That young player from National University-Nazareth School eventually found her rhythm, just like every great shooter does. They all understand that the next shot might be the one that changes everything.