Published: September 28, 2009
Over the past few years, countless basketball fans have grumbled about ESPN and AND1 ruining the game because they place an emphasis on flashy plays. Instead of enjoying the creativity and fun these programs bring to the game these couch-bound critics complain this style of play is corrupting the game.
This argument is on the verge of being put to rest as NBA players shot free throws as well as they ever have this past season.
Last season the NBA’s collective free throw percentage, led by Jose Calderon’s league leading 98.1% (151-for-154), was up to 77.07 percent as players combined to make 46,907 free throws made in a staggering 60,897 attempts.
What’s impressive about those numbers is the league came close to eclipsing the NBA’s previous single-season cumulative high of 77.1 percent from the 1973-74 season.
Why should fans care about coming just short of setting a league record? Well, besides it happening 35 years ago, at that time the NBA had only 17 total franchises compared with the current 30. During the 1973-74 season, those 17 teams combined to make 27,294 free throws in only 35,392 attempts.
It wasn’t just teams that were shooting a high percentage as Ray Allen (93.5%) and Steve Nash (93.3) shot well enough to finish with averages which placed them within the top 15 in NBA history, while Calderon’s mark places him as the best single-season mark in the history of the NBA.
Other than those three players the most recent player on the list below was way back in the 1999-00 season.
Clearly something has changed this season and instead of bemoaning the flash found in the game fans need to take notice of players putting in extra time to work on the fundamentals.
2 Comments on "Getting Back To The Fundamentals"
Dave on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 12:48 am
If the record was in 73-74 season, that was 35 years before last season, not 25.
Ryan McNeill on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 6:24 am
Dave – Thanks for pointing that out, I just went back into the editor and fixed that.