If you are self-conscious as a shooter you are doomed. The pure shooter aims not to think but to be in unconcious mode automatically letting his fundamentals and countless hours of training to kick in.
By simply being on the court, the pure shooter's presence automatically spreads the floor for his team. When the pure shooter is out on the floor, it is just a matter of time before 3-pointers begin to fall in. Not only does the pure shooter expect to make his shots, but everyone in the arena expects it as well and usually they are not disappointed.
There is a common belief that to make a shot half the time in the game, you need to make it 70% of the time in practice. For the pure shooter, 70% is unacceptable. Without a defender in front of him, the pure shooter is upset is he ever misses. Most NBA players can dunk, run and jump, but only a select few are pure shooters.
There is a certain aura that the pure shooter evokes when he is on the court. At any given moment, he can explode to become a game changer. At times, he does not even have to shoot, just his presence makes things happen on the floor as his opponents scramble to shift defenses just to accomodate the possible scoring threat.
So how does one become a pure shooter? Some say it begins first by learning the fundamentals of shooting and replicating the form thousands of time. 100,000 shots is the threshold that many say must be reached before one becomes a pure shooter. Others say that pure shooters are born and not made. They say that you either have it or you don't. Traditionalist point to the text book fundamentals while others say that many of the great pure shooters in the NBA have shown to have unconventional forms. Many have been taught with countless hours of instruction while many others just simply were able to "just do it".
Whether trained to have the ability to shoot or just being blessed with the gift of the shooting gods, the pattern that emerges from all pure shooters is that they practice their craft to the point of reaching a level of obsession. They shoot on off days, before and after practice, before and after games. Replicating the shot over and over again is the common denominator. The pure shooter just loves to shoot the ball even if it is by himself for endless hours. Mentally they go into a state of meditation while shooting that few of us have ever reached and when game time arrives, we get to see the pure shooter doing what appears to be magical to us but is is routine to him.
While most of us think too much about the shot and the pressure of the moment, the pure shooter relishes the moment and positions himself to launch his shots as often as he can because to him it is a moment of bliss that only master craftsmen can truly understand.
