Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching a lot of Knicks basketball, but lately, I’ve been thinking about free throws. Over the last week, the Knicks have squared off twice against the Sacramento Kings in contests that have featured two All-Star big men—Kings center DeMarcus Cousins and Knicks center Joakim Noah—who just so happen to be absolutely abysmal from the charity stripe.
Now, perhaps it’s a little bit unfair to put Cousins’ struggles from the line quite in the same vein as Noah’s. So far this year, the burgeoning superstar has shot just 75 percent from the foul line, which is bad enough to put him in the bottom 25 of all qualified NBA players.
Noah, on the other hand, who made his money as a player who can do just about everything other than score the basketball, has been more than a bit worse, making his free throws at an absurd 31 percent clip.
It might seem strange to see these stars—men at the top of their physical profession—fail so mightily at what seems to be the easiest part of their jobs, but then I started to think that maybe shooting foul shots is one of the sneakily most daunting tasks in sports.
Putting aside the physical aspects of the free throw (it’s been well documented that taller players are at a disadvantage when it comes to hitting at a high percentage), I have to imagine that the foul line is the loneliest place in all of sports.
Athletes—no matter the level—are certainly not exempt from facing mental obstacles. Just look at a golfer who inexplicably loses the ability to sink putts or a baseball player—looking at you, Steve Sax or Jon Lester—who suddenly can’t make a routine throw to a base; a small hiccup in the mind can undo years and years of work on the most basic fundamentals.
But whereas a case of the yips on the baseball field or on the golf course can serve to quickly derail a once-promising career, bad foul shooting in the NBA seems to be an accepted part of the game. As long as a player can help his team in other ways, like the explosive DeAndre Jordan, he’s going to be out on the court, playing meaningful minutes, and inevitably called upon to head to the foul line several times a game.
Late in the Knicks’ Sunday night win over the Kings, Noah was fouled late in the game and proceeded to sink both shots to help New York hold onto a slim lead. But it wasn’t the Knicks big man’s actual shots that came to mind when I thought about the game the following day.
After Noah’s first shot, Cousins walked up to him with a smile on his face and mimicked his “unique” motion, causing Noah to flash a sheepish grin.
And maybe, that’s most healthy way to deal with being a poor shooter from the line; just chuckle, put your head down, and keep shooting till you make one.
