{"id":610278,"date":"2026-04-28T00:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610278\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T00:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:48:07","slug":"valkyries-cate-reese-explains-jumping-on-free-throws-not-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610278\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries’ Cate Reese explains jumping on free throws: “Not illegal”"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2013 Cate Reese shook her head. Pursed her lips. Tossed her arms up in an exasperated shrug.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it forever,\u201d Reese said after Valkyries<\/a> practice in Oakland on Monday afternoon. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s not a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow, Reese had turned the mundane into an internet talking point as she fought to make theValkyries\u2019 roster during Saturday\u2019s preseason victory over Seattle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With 3:44 left in the third quarter<\/a>, Reese absorbed a foul by the Storm\u2019s Flau\u2019jae Johnson<\/a>. She then took and made both free throws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Routine for Reese, but it was Reese\u2019s routine that caught the eye of some onlookers on a night she scored two points, grabbed two rebounds and played 11 minutes. She took a small hop as she sent the ball toward the hoop, turning the usually ground-bound foul shot into a midrange jumper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is by design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hop on my free throws, because I feel like my midrange (shot) is good, and it gets me in the same flow with my midrange,\u201d Reese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is nothing new for the Valkyries\u2019 training camp invitee, having added the airborne part of her foul shot routine as a freshman at Arizona. Nobody told her to do it, and no one would tell her to stop after she made 75.6% of her foul shots over five years of college ball<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She enjoys making free throws, but loathes the discourse that comes with her way of shooting. A friend sent her a TikTok video of an anonymous content creator mocking her routine, and she said similar online comments popped up during her senior year in Tucson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When given a chance to dispel any myths about jumping at the line being illegal, Reese launched into a monologue that she had spoken before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a strength thing. I saw people think it\u2019s illegal to jump on free throws. It\u2019s not illegal. It\u2019s only illegal if you jump over the free-throw line, which doesn\u2019t happen often,\u201d Reese said, adding in, sarcastically, \u201cOtherwise, I would change my free-throw routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"STANFORD,Cate Reese (25) jumped on her free throws even in college (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Reese, 26, is hoping to make an impression on head coach Natalie Nakase and the Valkyries\u2019 staff that goes beyond how she shoots free throws. She has spent the past few years playing for Kangoeroes Basket Mechelen in Belgium after graduating in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last three years have seen Reese improve her jump shot and she is a more confident player on defense, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really grateful for the opportunity, and to coach Nakase for giving me this chance,\u201d Reese, still a long shot to make the final roster, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If there is one person who will not mind Reese\u2019s unique free-throw routine, it is Nakase. As a high schooler at Marina High in Huntington Beach, she proudly used the hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn high school, I didn\u2019t feel like I was strong enough to get it above and have a strong arc, so I did that,\u201d Nakase said.<\/p>\n

As long as her players make it, the coach made it clear she did not care how her players get the ball to go through the hoop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can even go granny-style,\u201d Nakase said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2013 Cate Reese shook her head. Pursed her lips. Tossed her arms up in an exasperated shrug.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2356,99,434],"class_list":["post-610278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-california","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}