November 11, 2018. The Atlanta Hawks are leading the Los Angeles Lakers 106-105 with just 19 seconds remaining in the game. LeBron James takes a shot from under the basket. Hawks rookie Omari Spellman smothers James on the shot. The shot doesn’t fall, but Spellman is called for a shooting foul.
James steps to the free throw line; affectionately called the charity stripe due to the ease of the shot. Per usual, he takes two dribbles and a half-step back with his left foot. He brings the ball up on a free throw to tie the game… and clanks it off the back of the rim.
He gets a second chance. Ideally, this is the shot to gain a lead, but James and the Lakers will settle for a tie score. Again, James dribbles and steps. The ball flies through the air, the only sound in the arena being James’s breaths. This time the ball hits the front of the rim and bounces off.
Luckily for LeBron, teammate Kyle Kuzma is able to reach over Spellman and fellow Hawk Taurean Prince. Kuzma attempts a tip-in but misses. He grabs his own rebound, and goes up for another shot, only to be stripped by Vince Carter. Kuzma, after regaining possession for the third time, puts up third attempt. This becomes the fourth Lakers miss in the span of thirty seconds. This time James gets the rebound. He meets the ball mid-air and dunks it to give LA a one-point lead.
Los Angeles would hold onto that lead for the remaining four seconds thanks to a Tyson Chandler goaltend block as the clock read 0:00.0.
TYSON CHANDLER COMES UP BIG AGAIN pic.twitter.com/DpWun3MG4m
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 12, 2018
When asked about his missed free throws (he was 3-7 on the game), LeBron didn’t sugar-coat it. “I’m garbage. Yeah, I suck from the free throw line right now,” he said. If by “now,” he means the 2018-19 season, he’s dead wrong. He’s shooting .755 from the line, his fifth-highest season percentage. What he must’ve meant to say was “I suck from the free throw line when it matters.”
As of November 16, 2018, James has shot 6942 free throws over his career. 362 of those (roughly 5%) have been in situations I’d call “clutch” – in overtime or the fourth quarter with under three minutes to play, and LeBron’s team tied or trailing by no more than five. He has made 70.4% (255) of those free throws… the league average FT% is 76.3%.
That’s nothing to scoff at. I sure as heck can’t hit seven out of ten free throws. But LeBron James is a 73.9% career free throw shooter. As an already mediocre free throw shooter, he gets even worse when it matters.
I charted every clutch free throw (henceforth called CFTs) LeBron has taken in his career and how it affected his percentage (huge thanks to Basketball Reference’s Event Finder). Notice that he starts with a 100% and then takes a drastic drop down to 66.6% — James made his first two career CFTs and missed his third.
You may see that he dropped below the 80% mark on February 22, 2006 (a 107-116 loss to the 76ers) and hasn’t been above that mark since. Following that game, he’s been a 69.7% CFT shooter. Another interesting trend to note: from February 1, 2007, to February 10, 2009, LeBron James wasn’t able to call himself an above-70% CFT shooter. That’s 740 days in which a player in contention for GOAT status was less effective on CFTs than Nikola Mirotić, a career 35.7% field goal shooter (72.0% CFT).
This is in no form a way for me to take shots at LeBron. As a matter of fact, this blemish in his sparkle only makes his diamond of a career even brighter. The fact that a well-below average free throw shooter that gets even worse when it comes down to the wire is still in ther GOAT conversation is incredible. It proves that he’s unprecedentedly amazing at everything else, such that being poor at a seemingly easy aspect of basketball means nothing.
However, James’s inefficiency may be costly down the road. The Lakers did win the aforementioned Hawks game, but that won’t always be the case. LeBron is one of, if not the, best player(s) in the league. You want the ball in his hands when a game is winding down, especially if he’s your only player scoring more than 20 PPG. Teams can, and will, take advantage of this. Intentionally fouling LeBron may be in your benefit due to this poor free throw shooting. And for a weaker team in an incredibly strong Western Conference, the Lakers will be needing all the easy points they can get.
Disagree with me? Maybe think that LeBron isn’t even top two All-Time? Let me know on Twitter: @zekepersources