by Tim Povtak

Filed under: Cavaliers, Heat, Magic, NBA Fans

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ted St. Martin has spent life with a basketball in his hands, flipping it through the rim with an unprecedented and unbelievable accuracy, a consistency that no one ever has matched.

He just might be the greatest pure shooter in basketball history, the greatest untapped resource the NBA has ignored, hidden away now but still ripe to be mined, a little known key that could open the door to a championship season.

To Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, or even LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he could be the ticket to an NBA title in 2011.

“I could make any one of them a 90 percent free-throw shooter, if they had a little time and a willingness to learn,” he says matter-of-factly. “I guarantee it. Then, how much better would they be?”

St. Martin, 75, is living now in virtual anonymity, still giving shooting lessons, mostly local kids, on his modest, backyard court, a no-frills setup where he has lived and taught for the last 35 years, a middle-class lifestyle that belies his place in history.

He has been the World Record Holder (according to Guinness World Records) for consecutive free throws made without a miss since 1972, officially resetting his own record 15 times.