Right or Left Hand?

Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers is an up and coming player in the NBA these days. The Canada native played his college ball at the University of Texas. Thompson ended up playing one year at Texas and then he managed to enter the NBA draft.

Over the summer Thompson made a change that most the players in the NBA could not do. Thompson changed his shooting hand from right hand to left hand. Granted that he is ambidextrous, making that kind of a change is pretty remarkable. He was actually shooting around in the summer for his Canadian National team when this was brought to his attention. Jeremy Pargo challenged Tristan Thompson to a shooting contest with their opposite hands. Thompson impressively beat him very handily and Pargo encouraged him to switch his hands. Pargo told him that he is a very solid NBA player, but he thought that if he made the switch to the right hand that he could become an all star.

In his first and second seasons in the NBA Thompson shot a poor 55% and 60% from the free throw line. Now in his third year he has started off the season shooting an impressive 75% from the line. Whether the change is better for him remains to be seen, but so far it is looking good for the young kid.

"Tristan Thompson tries to find the open man on November 2nd, 2013"
(My image Dominique Neely)