High fives between FTs

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“I don’t even know why we do it,” Mike Miller of the Cleveland Cavaliers said, “but we have to do it.”

Of the things that players seem to enjoy most, high-fives between free throws rank somewhere in the vicinity of private air travel and large headphones. And while nobody seems to know how, when or why the practice began, most players said they would feel lost without it — an expression of bonhomie and a psychological boost for the teammate at the line.

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Ed Palubinskas, 64, a former Olympic basketball player from Australia who has tutored players in free-throw shooting, said players who accepted high-fives after errant foul shots were quietly advertising their willingness to be mediocre.

“You got the two guys behind him giving him a low-five,” Palubinskas said, “and the two guys in front of him saying: ‘Hey, it’s O.K. Don’t be sad. You’ll get the next one.’ I would say: ‘Don’t give me a high-five. I don’t deserve one.’ ”

Palubinskas, who described his occupation as “shooting engineer,” said he had worked with players like Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard and Brandon Bass.

When Palubinskas was reached by telephone last week, he said he was feeling a bit glum because in the middle of sinking 200 straight free throws that afternoon, he had hit the rim on one of his attempts. He says he shoots 99 percent from the line.

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