Free Throws Ain’t Free 

Since my last article, I have done the unthinkable. I stayed up late twice to watch the New York Knicks play against the Indiana Pacers. One game they lost, and in the second, they won (by the grace of God).

Now, I’ve discussed how these games are just unbearably late, so I won’t get into that again. No sir.

I want to talk about basketball. Yes, you read that correctly. I will be discussing a sport in this sports column.

I considered writing about fouls in basketball because they are just ridiculous. There are personal, technical, and flagrant fouls, it’s just too much. What happened to the expression “let them play”? I really couldn’t focus on fouls for an entire article, it’s too depressing.

I want to discuss professional basketball players not making free throws.

HOW!?! No really, HOW can a man who is 6’6 and gets paid millions of dollars a season, not make a free throw shot?

Now, I can completely wrap my head around a bad day. I work with 5-year-olds, I know all about bad days. Professional athletes are just like 5-year-olds, right? Humans can get a pass every once in a while for having an off day or not performing to the best of our ability. Okay, free pass.

What I cannot understand is consistency. When I was watching the Knicks, my husband mentioned that Mitchell Robinson keeps getting fouled because of his free throw statistics. His free throw rate is 52.2%. Not terrible, but players on the Pacers choose to foul him because it’s better to leave Robinson’s free throw to chance than it is to have the possibility of another Knicks’ player making it down the court to shoot.

So, for research purposes, I decided to do the unimaginable: I played basketball. I grabbed a basketball, went to my school gym at lunch, and gave it a go. Now, I’d be lying if I said that it was pretty. BUT I made more than one free throw in my 10-minute playtime. I played one season of YMCA basketball when I was eight and haven’t tried again since. I am 5’4”, unathletic, and have never practiced basketball … why can I make multiple free throws on my first try? If I dedicated my life to the sport, you better believe I would have better than a 50% average!

Am I missing something?! You should not have a multi-million-dollar contract if you cannot make a simple shot like this.

Granted, free throws aren’t the only thing that’s important. Let’s go back to Mitch Robinson. He is considered one of the greatest defensive players currently playing in the NBA, and his rebounding is incredible.

But it’s just the principal. It pisses me off when the Knicks are losing, and some dope can’t make a free throw and get the team a couple extra points that it desperately needs! You’re probably not gonna win a game on free throws alone, but you can certainly lose one!

After Tuesday night’s depressing loss, the Knicks find themselves one game away from elimination. Let’s hope the Garden can give the Knicks some much-needed MSG magic and the season is still alive next week.