The coolest thing about basketball and the way a decentralized American culture works is that there is no definite standard.
Take Japan for the counterpoint: there is a lot of pressure on baseball players to have perfect batting technique.
Here, a guy like Tom Heinsohn can learn to shoot in a low-ceiling gym and take his flat shot to the Hall of Fame. Dick Barnett curled his legs up on his jump shots, which was frankly odd. But it worked. Magic Johnson saw himself as a 6-9 point guard when no one else dreamed it was possible.