MIAMI — It begins with a dainty tuck, hands pulled back, as if to shield himself from danger, the ball nestled against his clavicle. Shawn Marion’s feet rise in front of him, and his body becomes a drafting compass, his waist as its hinge.

“I cringe,” said Dennis Scott, the former Orlando Magic shooting legend.

Marion’s wrists flick around chin level, and the ball sails toward the horizon.

“The worst shot I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the shooting guru David Thorpe, dispensing with all diplomacy.

Type the phrase “ugly jump shot” into Google, and the first link is a YouTube video of Marion flinging and shot-putting 3-pointers. The form stays true, and truly hideous, on free throws and practice shots. Scroll down, and a computer-generated Marion is putting up the same unsightly shot in a video-game clip.