Have been watching the NBA finals (Boston vs. Golden State) and watching Game 2 right now (Sunday evening, 6/5), in my easy chair in front of the tube, typing away on my laptop, as I watch the game. (Wow, great shot, Horford!)
In the NBA it's always puzzled me that those guys, masters of the roundball that they are, can go out on the court and sink gobs of three-point shots, lots of them definitely from "downtown."
But when they go to the line to shoot free-throws, they regularly miss some! How is that? I mean, they're standing alone on the free-throw line, no opposing player is in their face, no shot clock pressuring them to shoot, it's a relatively short shot, and --- they regularly miss some!
I actually googled
why cant nba players make free throws
and found this:
https://hoopshype.com/2015/08/03/why-cant-nba-players-make-free-throws/#:~:text=why%20can%27t%20nba%20players%20make%20free%20throws%3f%201,a%20maximum%20of%20...%203%20mental%20approach.%20It's by an NBA shooting coach who claims the problem is --- confidence. That's all.
He says
"Think about it. If a player steps to the line questioning himself, feeling all the eyes of the crowd on him, and genuinely feeling uncomfortable, there is no way he is going to succeed. But if the player steps to the line with the mindset ‘automatic points’ and feeling comfortable and relaxed then he will have a much better chance of making those free throws. Literally, free throw shooting is between 80-90 percent mental. Simple as that."Well maybe he's right. Confidence really is the key.
(BTW, the above article has some
really interesting figures on how some of the truly great NBA players in history -- legends -- had
terrible (by today's standards) free-throw figures during their careers!).
Well, those guys are pros, so l'm sure they know what they're doing. But, still, it just seems a little odd that making free throws turns out to be the challenge for those guys that it is.