Truly Foul Shooters : There’s No Defense on Free Throws, so Why Are So Many in the NBA So Bad?

Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone stepped to the free-throw line, bounced the ball three times, twirled it and chanted something to himself as he shot.

The ritual didn’t work. Malone, a 72.1% free-throw shooter, missed. In fact, in that particular game, a 94-92 victory over the Miami Heat, Malone shot a career-high 28 free throws but made only 15.

“If we would have lost the game, I would have taken full responsibility,” Malone said. “I did a terrible job. Just terrible.”

But Miami center Alonzo Mourning did even worse, missing 13 of 17 free throws.

“Women could shoot free throws better,” Jazz broadcaster Hot Rod Hundley told his listeners.

Callers flooded the station, protesting that Hundley’s comment was sexist, so Hundley shot against 10 women in a free-throw contest the next week.

Hundley, a former Laker, lost.

“One woman made all five, and I made three,” he said.

Hundley, though, needn’t be embarrassed. The NBA’s stars have gathered in San Antonio for the All-Star game Sunday, and there are dunking and three-point shot contests today. But there is no free-throw contest. Maybe that’s because such NBA stars as Shaquille O’Neal, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Jason Kidd and Chris Webber don’t shoot free throws very well. O’Neal, in fact, doesn’t even make half of his, sinking 46.8% of them. Rodman shoots 57.4% from the line, Webber 59.4%, Pippen 66.7% and Kidd 66.8%.

“I’ve struggled this year,” Kidd said. “It’s just concentration. I started off slow, but now I’m concentrating a lot more on making my free throws.

“I don’t think all the stars have problems shooting free throws. . . . Michael [Jordan] has a pretty high percentage [.823]. Free throws are something that an individual is either good at or has to work on. Myself, I just have to work on it. It takes a lot of practice, like anything else.”

Denver Nugget guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who made 81 consecutive free throws in 1993-94, when he posted the second-best free-throw percentage in NBA history, said a free throw is one of the easiest shots in basketball.

“That’s a shot that you find yourself with no defense,” he said.

Hundley, a 72.1% free-throw shooter in his playing days, agreed.

“Free-throw shooting should be easy,” he said. “You walk up there and you’re 15 feet away from the basket and you don’t have anybody bothering you. If you’re a shooter, you’re going to make them. We’ve really got some terrible shooters, compared to past years.”

O’Neal may be the worst free-throw shooter since Wilt Chamberlain, a career 51.1% free-throw shooter who made only 38% in 1967-68.

O’Neal’s poor free-throw shooting, in fact, spawned the hack-a-Shaq defense, opponents intentionally fouling him before he has a chance to make a move to the basket. Don’t give up the dunk, the theory goes, put him on the foul line.

O’Neal made only nine of 33 free throws in a recent three-game span, missing six of seven in a 13-point victory over Atlanta and 11 of 13 in another game. But there is hope for him. He made five consecutive free throws in the final 3:03 of regulation play as his Orlando Magic beat the San Antonio Spurs in overtime last Sunday.

O’Neal said he shoots well in practice and made 18 consecutive free throws before the game against the Hawks.

“You can ask anyone,” O’Neal told the Orlando Sentinel. “I always hit them in practice. I just don’t hit them in games.”

O’Neal is working with a new free-throw shooting coach this season, Tom Sterner. Buzz Braman, O’Neal’s former line coach, went to the Washington Bullets. Sterner has changed O’Neal’s form, making him start the ball at the waist.

“He makes about 80% of his free throws in practice,” Sterner said. “Now the process he has to go through is to get the practice free throws into the games. We have charted, monitored every free throw that he’s shot this year.

“That’s the biggest plus going for us, that he’s ready to make the commitment. He’s saying, ‘It’s time for me to improve in the area where historically I haven’t been very good.’ I think he’s got the right mental approach.”

Poor free-throw shooting might have cost the Magic the 1995 NBA championship.

With his team leading the opening game of the finals, 110-107, Orlando guard Nick Anderson missed four free throws in the final 10.7 seconds of regulation time and the Houston Rockets won in overtime, 120-118.

The Magic never recovered and was swept in four games.

The Clippers’ Bill Fitch, who has coached more games than any other NBA coach, doesn’t think free-throw shooting has kept pace with other improvements in the game and he thinks he knows why.

“If you go around to 100 playgrounds and watch the kids, see how many of them are shooting free throws,” he said. “Most of the games on the playgrounds, if you foul somebody you take the ball out of bounds. You don’t give the significance to free throws that you should.

“Eventually at this level, every player either lives or dies with it. Karl Malone came into the league and couldn’t throw it in the ocean from the foul line, and he’s become a [better] foul shooter. [Hakeem] Olajuwon was not a good free-throw shooter when he came in.

“Shaq is a legend at not being a good free-throw shooter, but he’s progressing. Chamberlain is the only Hall of Famer and great player that I know that really didn’t get better at shooting free throws, and he was so damn good that he really didn’t have to. Some guys just have a phobia.

“We ought to have a rule in this league where your paycheck doesn’t commence unless you shoot 70% of your free throws. You can play, but every first and 15th [of the month] you should give half your paycheck to your favorite charity. I think under those circumstances every player would become a better free-throw shooter.”

Braman, O’Neal’s former free-throw coach, said many players have poor shooting fundamentals.

“Their shooting fundamentals are so bad that when guys are practicing free throws, the only thing they’re doing is getting better at the same bad fundamentals,” he said. “It gets exposed at the foul line, but to be honest, it’s shooting in general that has declined.

“This whole trend started 20 years ago, when they were marketing the dunk. Every highlight is nothing but dunks and kids watch that and they go out and take every ball to the hoop, and that’s not the reality of the game.”

But even bad free-throw shooters can improve.

New York Knick Coach Don Nelson got Anthony Mason to change his shot.

“He was a 64% free-throw shooter and I was trying to get him to be more consistent with his stroke and shorten it a little,” Nelson said. “He’s up around 74%-75% this year [now 70.6%) so he’s been very successful.”

Dallas Coach Dick Motta, however, thinks free-throw shooting is more mental than physical.

“Free-throw shooting is more a state of mind than it is a state of technique,” he said. “If they don’t have the right mental approach, they won’t make them. I’m not a shrink, but if you go up to the free-throw line with a negative attitude, you’re usually going to miss.

“It takes a heck of a person to concentrate in a game when they’re waving signs and balloons. You have to have total focus. Some players worry about the magnitude of the loss when they go to the line. That’s easy for someone to say who sits on the sideline.”

Abdul-Rauf, who leads the NBA with a .922 free-throw percentage, said he follows the same routine when he goes to the line.

“I keep the same routine,” he said. “When I’m struggling, I don’t change my routine because when you do that, you’re thinking a lot and it affects the way you shoot.

“I take two bounces, pick it up, take three bounces, spin it, and that gives me a chance to breathe. I just relax and shoot and when I shoot I look toward the back of the rim.”

Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said the two-time defending NBA champions work hard on free throws in practice.

“We put competition on it,” Tomjanovich said. “We have monthly contests on it. A lot of times when you’re shooting free throws in practice, it’s sort of a time when guys are visiting. But if you put competition on it, guys will get down to serious business.”

Maybe they should have a free-throw contest at the All-Star festivities after all.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Foul Them

The NBA’s worst free-throw shooters this season (minimum 50 attempts) *--*

Player, Team FT-A Pct. Eric Montross, Celtics 38-96 .396 Charles Outlaw, Clippers 35-81 .432 Michael Smith, Kings 40-92 .435 Derrick Alston, 76ers 27-61 .443 Eric Mobley, Grizzlies 38-83 .458 Shaquille O’Neal, Magic 102-218 .468 Dale Davis, Pacers 80-165 .485 Will Perdue, Spurs 33-68 .485 Antonio Harvey, Clippers 29-59 .492 Michael Cage, Cavaliers 30-61 .492

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