In 1922, a basketball player named Nat Holman wrote Scientific Basketball, a book in which he attempted to explain the different aspects of the young sport in writing. On pages 63 and 64, he described “Execution Play. No. 8,” a dribble handoff play where the on-ball defender’s angle is interrupted, allowing the offensive player a clear driving lane to the rim.
The great-grandfather of the pick-and-roll.
The history of the pick-and-roll has four distinct chapters. Between the near-beginnings of basketball through the 1950s, pick-and-rolls were one of many set plays within a regimented sport that was still gaining its schematic footing. They became more prevalent in the 1960s and into the 1980s, but teams were less intentional about the who, when, and why of the play. John Stockton and Karl Malone marked the first time a prolific guard and dominant big man combination featured pick-and-rolls as their primary means of attack, using their collective gravity to open…
