Basketball requires various skills, but shooting skill is always highly regarded. “If you can shoot, you can play” is a popular basketball adage.
 
“In Europe the first thing they tell you is if you can shoot, you can play this game,” New Jersey Nets player Drazen Petrovic (1964-1993) told the New York (NY) Times in 1993. It’s not known who originated the adage.
 
“If you can hit, you can play” is a baseball adage.
 
       
New York (NY) Times
PRO BASKETBALL; Petrovic’s Fluency Goes Beyond 1-2-3
By MIKE FREEMAN,
Published: March 2, 1993
Pucaj tricu. It is Croatian for “shoot the 3.” They are probably Drazen Petrovic’s favorite words in any language: Shoot the 3.
(...)
Petrovic first learned to shoot when he was 10 years old. In the United States, kids get a thrill when they first learn to dunk. For Petrovic, the farther away he was from the basket when he nailed a shot, the faster his heart raced. “In Europe the first thing they tell you is if you can shoot, you can play this game.”
 
Philly.com
Long-distance Operator Flc’s Coleman Got Help On His Launches
by Ted Silary, Daily News Sports Writer
POSTED: January 25, 1996
Every kid needs a helping hand.
 
For the young Eric Coleman, that hand belonged to Ronald Gibson and it did more than offer pats on the back.
(...)
“He coached the first team I was on, at age 13,” Coleman said. “He used to say flat-out, ‘If you can shoot, you’ll be playing.’ I never forgot that. I asked him to show me how to shoot the ball properly.”
   
5 April 2002, The Intelligencer Record (Doylestown, PA), “GA’s Walsh named first-team All-State” by Kevin Cooney and Lyle Fitzsimmons, pg. C4, col. 3:
“I haven’t played much at all since the (high school) season ended. I want to work on my shooting to the point where I’m a deadly 3-point shooter when I get there. If you can shoot, you can play in college.”
(Germantown Academy’s Matt Walsh.—ed.)
 
Google News Archive
5 June 2003, Rome (GA) News-Tribune, “Georgia assistant offers tips” by Joseph Myers, pg. 1B, col. 2:
“If you can shoot, you can overcome a multitude of sins. Just because you’re doesn’t 5-4 doesn’t mean you can’t play.”
(University of Georgia women’s basketball assistant coach Michael Shafer.—ed.)
 
Basketballs Best
14 November 2004
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Yahoo! Sports
Ball Don’t Lie grades the 2012 NBA draft
By Kelly Dwyer
June 29, 2012 2:00 PM
(...)
He can shoot, and in the NBA if you can shoot, you can play. Simple as that.
 
Twitter
Hoop Dreams
‏@Hoopdreamscamps
Shooting might be the most underrated skill taught. If you can shoot you can play at any level. Yet…there are very few GREAT shooters.
6:38 PM - 1 Jan 2014
 
Twitter
ATL SWISH 16U
‏@ATLSwishHoops
Quote of the Day from the 2014 NBA Draft “If you can shoot, you have a shot”...
10:40 PM - 26 Jun 2014