YouTube Gold: Blocking The Skyhook

Robert Parish is in a select club because not many people ever did this

For 20 years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Skyhook was the most unstoppable offensive weapon in the NBA. You could make the argument that it is still the greatest weapon in basketball history and that it was virtually unblockable.

But not completely.

We’ve seen claims that only a handful of players blocked it but we periodically see other guys pop up who did it.

First it was Wilt Chamberlain, blocking it twice in a row. Bill “Poodles” Willoughby got it once but it was ruled goaltending. Bill Walton got it once but his was from behind. Still, he got it. There are a couple of others.

One that we have never seen before is by Boston Celtic Robert Parish.

We’re not sure of the date of this play, but it was obviously during the Bird-Magic era and it was in the Fabulous Forum, so there’s a reasonable chance it was a playoff game.

The video title asks if it was a Skyhook. Well, yes, it was, and Parish got it, fair and square.

It’s amazing really that this shot got blocked so few times but once Kareem perfected it, it was almost impossible to get to it.