A shootaround is an informal pre-game

practice Practice or practise may refer to: Education and learning * Practice (learning method), a method of learning by repetition * Phantom practice, phenomenon in which a person's abilities continue to improve, even without practicing * Practice-based ...

session common among professional and collegiate basketball teams around the world. Shootarounds do not involve all of the formal elements of a regular practice. They usually do not involve conditioning drills, run-throughs of plays and extensive chalk-talks by

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

like normal practice sessions. The practice is largely informal and may consist of players practicing their shooting, with five or six players shooting at one basket and rebounding others' shots. NBA Hall-of-Famer

Bill Sharman William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then considered ...

invented the morning shootaround as a way to burn off nervous energy on game days. He took the shootaround with him to his first coaching jobs in the ABL, ABA, and later, the NBA. After coaching the Los Angeles Lakers to the league championship in 1972, every other team in the league added the shootaround to its game-day regimen. The shootaround is a staple of the pre-game warmup routine for all NBA teams, most college teams, and many teams at all levels. So infused is the term into basketball's lexicon, in fact, that

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's NBA re-cap show is called ''NBA Shootaround''.

References

{{Basketball Basketball terminology