Basketball has brought some of the best athletes in the world to the 2024 Paris Olympics. And thanks to U.S. men's 3x3 player Canyon Barry, it's also brought back one of the sport's most endangered species: the underhanded free throw.

Barry busted out the shot during Team USA's game against Poland on Wednesday, continuing a family tradition that spans some 50 years — and helped change basketball history.

If that last name looks familiar, well, it probably should: Barry is the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry, an NBA champion and eight-time All-Star who also happened to be among the best foul shooters ever. 

Rick's secret? The granny-style shot, which he pioneered in the 1960s and 1970s. Barry was deadly accurate, finishing at 90% over his 16-year career. The only player in the history of the league who's taken as many free throws and made more is some guy named Steph Curry.

So it's no surprise that, as Rick's son Canyon progressed in his own basketball career, he eventually picked up the technique. He was initially skeptical, however. “It’s hard enough being your son without the underhand free throws,” Rick recalled his son telling him.

It wasn't until Canyon's senior year of high school that he finally went underhand, and his logic was pretty sound: "Logic would dictate that if you have one of the greatest free-throw shooters of all time as your personal free-throw coach, you should probably take a look at that style," Canyon told The Wall Street Journal.

The results were undeniable. Barry shot 88% from the line as a senior at the University of Florida, at one point setting a new school record with 42 consecutive makes. And while the underhanded shot fell out of favor decades ago, Rick Barry is still willing to show people how it's done:

And on Thursday in Paris, his son brought it to the biggest stage in the world. 

It's been a bit of a bumpy start to these Olympics for Barry and the U.S. men, who have dropped their first two games of pool play. But with seven pool games in all, there's still plenty of time for the team that took silver at last year's FIBA World Cup to make a serious run.