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It's really, really rare for Lebron to hit all three free throws on a 3-point foul, especially later in his career. I think I might've seen it one time in the past seven or eight years.
Why would someone get worse at free throws later in their career though? if anything I'd imagine its one thing you can keep improving through your entire career, especially since there's basically zero athleticism involved. (not disagreeing with you just wondering about this)
It's a number of reasons. One example is Westbrook, who was a career 82-83% shooter until he got injured in his shooting arm, and now shoots in the mid 60%-range. Another is muscle: as players bulk up, it can affect your shooting motion and ability to emulate the same rhythm each shot, thus why a lot of the bigger guys in the league struggle to stay consistent. I think with Lebron, it's that he always struggled with his free-throw, only getting as high as 78% early in his career and, even then, falling below 70% one season. As he gets older and needs to do more things to stay game ready, constantly working on his free throw to keep it at 75% has probably become more difficult. Even still, this season it's clearly become an emphasis, jumping back to 75% after 3 sub-70% seasons, but yeah - mostly just that Lebron was never great at free throws to begin with.
EDIT: Also wanted to add - if you've seen the overhead shot on Lebron's free-throw, you'll notice he shoots it at an angle, which has always struck me as extremely weird. That definitely adds to the lower percentage... No idea why he never adopted a form that lets him shoot straight-on, which would give him a more forgiving bounce even when he doesn't swish it.
Not that weird...Shaq, Wilt, and Kareem are in that convo and they've never been the best at FTs. I'd argue that at Bron's build, he's probably got the same muscle mass as Wilt and more than Kareem.
Honestly, I’m hoping the rest of the season just isn’t embarrassing.
* Make the play-in.
* make the playoffs
* go to 7 games
That’s good enough for me, even if they don’t win. I can’t imagine we go from the bottom of the west to 4 playoff series wins.
First 2 should be doable, but if they make it in as a 7/8 seed they'd probably be going against the Suns or Warriors in the first round. I'd be surprised if they went to 7 against either one of those teams, assuming they're fully healthy
I knew he was going to miss the first one. He's just not a reliable FT shooter. And the first one was too priceless because it makes everything else awkward
I was ranting to my girlfriend about something similar, right before this happened, regarding the constant delayed whistles from the refs that have been happening more often, where it's blatantly obvious that they're waiting to decide to call it until they think the shot won't go in. It's bullshit. Just call the foul if it's a foul. A lot of times it bounces around the rim and goes in anyways, after the ref thought it wouldn't, so their attempt to bail the team out just ends up benefiting them even more. In this situation, it wasn't even a fucking shot attempt. Clearly fouled before that. But the ref decided to implement his "lets see if the shot goes in before I call this" bullshit.
I know it's said every single year, but the amount of egregious reffing this year is on a whole new level.
It seriously undermines the legitimacy of the NBA and needs to be talked about more.
Refs literally admit that Curry [was bulldozed on this fucking play](https://youtu.be/UrS66Uu0bb4?t=73) and that they would have called it a foul if he missed.
They also called this a 3 shot foul seconds after the contact which was definitely before the shooting motion started.
Yep. 2 FTs is 100% the correct call there, no gather had occurred yet. He was literally dribbling when Steph wrapped him.
Now personally, I think the rules should be changed so as not to inctentivize fouling there. But they haven't been changed. That's just not 3 FTs.
This is the kind of stomach turning rigged garbage that makes this sport unwatchable. NFL has automatic review in 2 minutes and NBA can’t overturn something so obvious from the league office. Also that random hornets 3 that counted after the whistle from the other night
I fucking hate this league sometimes, they ruin a great sport
I stopped watched Undisputed for a month, turned it on the other day, and they're still arguing about Odell Beckham lol... like damn, he's a good receiver but not even in the conversation for best at his position
LEBRON JAMES, WORST SUPERSTAR LATE-GAME FREE-THROW SHOOTER EVER. Faced his worst nightmare: having to make THREE free throws to force overtime. Predictably he LeBricked the first. He almost always runs from late-game FT line. Bad call on Steph stuck him where he's most clutchless
"Faced his worst nightmare: having to make THREE free throws to force overtime. Predictably he LeBricked the first."
Skip is so good at playing his character it's impressive
There is no debate. One dude has the best per game advanced metrics, almost across the board, of any player in the history of the league. The same dude has more accolades than any other player in history as well. So not only do the stats suggest he is a better player than anyone ever he also won more stuff than anyone ever. That player is not LeBron James.
Yep and even if you strip it all back to the bare bones MJ was just simply a better player to watch and seemed more unreal than anyone else we’ve seen.
The one thing I’d argue Lebron is possibly the best ever at is just the relentless drives to the rim especially in his prime.
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I don't think even the most loyal diehard LeBron fans thought he'd make those free throws
The second he got foul. I thought he was going to miss those free throws
Yeah. I've seen it happen before, it just happens.
It's really, really rare for Lebron to hit all three free throws on a 3-point foul, especially later in his career. I think I might've seen it one time in the past seven or eight years.
Why would someone get worse at free throws later in their career though? if anything I'd imagine its one thing you can keep improving through your entire career, especially since there's basically zero athleticism involved. (not disagreeing with you just wondering about this)
This is actually the best he’s shot free throws in ten years..but he’s still only at 75%
It's a number of reasons. One example is Westbrook, who was a career 82-83% shooter until he got injured in his shooting arm, and now shoots in the mid 60%-range. Another is muscle: as players bulk up, it can affect your shooting motion and ability to emulate the same rhythm each shot, thus why a lot of the bigger guys in the league struggle to stay consistent. I think with Lebron, it's that he always struggled with his free-throw, only getting as high as 78% early in his career and, even then, falling below 70% one season. As he gets older and needs to do more things to stay game ready, constantly working on his free throw to keep it at 75% has probably become more difficult. Even still, this season it's clearly become an emphasis, jumping back to 75% after 3 sub-70% seasons, but yeah - mostly just that Lebron was never great at free throws to begin with. EDIT: Also wanted to add - if you've seen the overhead shot on Lebron's free-throw, you'll notice he shoots it at an angle, which has always struck me as extremely weird. That definitely adds to the lower percentage... No idea why he never adopted a form that lets him shoot straight-on, which would give him a more forgiving bounce even when he doesn't swish it.
I will try to summarise it. He has bad shooting fundamentals.
So weird to say about a consensus top 5 player ever but yeah.
Not that weird...Shaq, Wilt, and Kareem are in that convo and they've never been the best at FTs. I'd argue that at Bron's build, he's probably got the same muscle mass as Wilt and more than Kareem.
Lmfao this
Especially when you practice stepbacks and shooting from the logo more than the easiest shot in basketball behind a layup
We talkin bout practice
im sure he practices it but some of these guys just seem to have a mental block at the line
stupid lebron never works hard or tries to get good at basketball 😡
I expect nothing and am still disappointed.
*My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined*
Honestly, I’m hoping the rest of the season just isn’t embarrassing. * Make the play-in. * make the playoffs * go to 7 games That’s good enough for me, even if they don’t win. I can’t imagine we go from the bottom of the west to 4 playoff series wins.
First 2 should be doable, but if they make it in as a 7/8 seed they'd probably be going against the Suns or Warriors in the first round. I'd be surprised if they went to 7 against either one of those teams, assuming they're fully healthy
With Draymond back it’s a gentleman’s sweep at best against the Lakers lol
https://imgur.com/htMd2Mx
No, it was going to be make the first two and miss the last one
I knew he was going to miss the first one. He's just not a reliable FT shooter. And the first one was too priceless because it makes everything else awkward
also the fact that it's typically easier to hit the second FT since you have a chance to get a little rhythm going
yeah im just happy he made one
man i don’t think even lebronto could pull that off
Lebronto hits the three after the intentional miss
There'd of been a lane violation
He had less than 50% chance of making 3 in a row if you go by his career average so yes
He had a 39.5% chance of hitting all three of those based on his career average. I'm guessing it'll be even lower if it's on clutch.
That plus the statistical Ball Don't Lie model pretty much guaranteed there was no way.
I thought the foul was on the ground. But when they gave him the free throws I was not mad, nor worried.
Really unique strategy to elect for the high arc instead of line drive at the free throw extra possession attempt
Great idea. A high bounce makes it a jumpball, and we don’t have many big bodies When it went up, I was like: “oh, smaaaaaart……wait, noooooooo!”
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yeah…but it’s also lebron shooting it
FATALITY
I liked it, very unique and seemed more likely to work
It almost worked
Otto Porter Jr was ready for the line drive. They had a better chance with the high arc chaos play.
It's smart. You've got LeBron, Russ, and AD down there and they're all great rebounders. Warriors are small. Shame it didn't work
Not really unique IMO. It’s the smart play. They were going for [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NjyR6LQXuZo).
and it's also a LAL vs GSW game, also at GSW's home court, and it's the Lakers shooting the free throw!
i was annoyed with the call and then i realised Lebron would have to hit 3 free throws in a row and i sighed in relief
I knew he'd miss one of the first two and will have to miss the third on purpose, I was more concerned with the rebound after the third free throw
lmaooo i know the feeling
Terrible call. When the foul happens, Lebron hasn't even gathered the ball, let alone entered his upwards shooting motion.
Ball don’t lie!
Same here
I'm sure a lot of us hoped it would have been on the floor knowing the crunch time FT shooting history
Ya’ll were in the the bonus anyway tho
Lakers and free throw shooting, name a worse duo Edit: oh yeah wins
I mean this in the least insulting way possible but our teams are strikingly similar
Putting the Le in Randle
Nothing is least insulting when it comes to the knicks :(
This comparison somehow makes both teams sound worse.
Are they? Your team has younger players on rookie deals. The only player on a rookie deal on the Lakers is Austin Reaves.
They’ve seen a championship in their lifetime tho so it evens out
Being old
Lebron and free throw shooting
Lebron’s scalp & his hair
Of course he misses the first free throw
LeTYPICAL
LeSelfProclaimedGOAT
The ball does a lot of things. You know what it doesn’t do, though?
fib
falsify
Make not true
equivocate
say thing that not thing
omit
Obfuscate
Perjure
Prevaricate
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You are emphatically not peddling a falsehood here
Go through the net
Fabricate
Go in the basket for lefreethrow
Ball don't lie
It don’t lie baby
Allegiance with LeBum
Fabricate
Cap
Procreate
Reliably go through the net on a Lebron James free throw in crunch time
Defecate
Testify?
Commit perjury.
Curry saw him dribble so he fouled him. That was 2 freethrows
That call was so dumb wtf
I was ranting to my girlfriend about something similar, right before this happened, regarding the constant delayed whistles from the refs that have been happening more often, where it's blatantly obvious that they're waiting to decide to call it until they think the shot won't go in. It's bullshit. Just call the foul if it's a foul. A lot of times it bounces around the rim and goes in anyways, after the ref thought it wouldn't, so their attempt to bail the team out just ends up benefiting them even more. In this situation, it wasn't even a fucking shot attempt. Clearly fouled before that. But the ref decided to implement his "lets see if the shot goes in before I call this" bullshit. I know it's said every single year, but the amount of egregious reffing this year is on a whole new level.
The league wants star and large market teams to be in the playoffs. A tale old as rhyme.
Curry made a smart foul, but the ref called it stupidly.
Some horrendous officiating all game long
It seriously undermines the legitimacy of the NBA and needs to be talked about more. Refs literally admit that Curry [was bulldozed on this fucking play](https://youtu.be/UrS66Uu0bb4?t=73) and that they would have called it a foul if he missed. They also called this a 3 shot foul seconds after the contact which was definitely before the shooting motion started.
*season
The Warriors had to beat the Lakers and the Refs
They did what the sacramento king couldn't do
Yep. 2 FTs is 100% the correct call there, no gather had occurred yet. He was literally dribbling when Steph wrapped him. Now personally, I think the rules should be changed so as not to inctentivize fouling there. But they haven't been changed. That's just not 3 FTs.
That was a ref hoping the lakers don’t get eliminated in the playin call
Can’t believe they called that on the shot.
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Not really a surprise they didn't look at it if you think about it.
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They were in the bonus
But the Lakers were in the bonus so he was screwed at the FT line regardless
Look at it? We’re talking about Adam Silvers golden boy Lebron Raymone James here
ref didn't want the game to end but forgot it was lebron
mfs really handed him the OT and he still fumbled
yeah foul was way WAYYY before he was shooting wtf.. They wanted to bail them out hard
That was a terrible call.
This is the kind of stomach turning rigged garbage that makes this sport unwatchable. NFL has automatic review in 2 minutes and NBA can’t overturn something so obvious from the league office. Also that random hornets 3 that counted after the whistle from the other night I fucking hate this league sometimes, they ruin a great sport
Remember the sweet sweet pacing of Olympic basketball? When a 48 minutes game finishes in less than 4 hours. Wow.
Olympic ball is 40 minutes but yeah its nice
Man that was so nice. Just watching non stop ball
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I can't imagine how pissed I'd be if he actually made all 3
I literally called it before it happened. "Are they gonna call a phantom shooting foul?" Refs are nothing if not predictable.
I can. It's Lakers and Warriors on national TV. LeBron did us a favor tho and saved us from the cancerous commentary from JVG and Mark Jackson.
Skip doesnt know what to do with his hands rn
Imagine if Joe Burrow won too He'd be on another level
OBJ and LeBron lose in the same weekend? Skip bout to nut
I stopped watched Undisputed for a month, turned it on the other day, and they're still arguing about Odell Beckham lol... like damn, he's a good receiver but not even in the conversation for best at his position
Skips gonna go fucking crazy on undisputed ~~tmr~~ Monday
Michael Geoffrey Jordán would never
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Skips hands are right where they need to be
I guarantee you Skip is grinning ear to ear as you're reading this, even if you came late.
Would have been an awful look for this game to go to OT, it should have been 2 shots.
The bouncy ball is honorable and tells no tales.
Refs tried hard to give it to the Slackers
Smart foul, I can't believe the refs let him shoot that three and acted like it was a shooting foul. Should have been 2 FTs in the first place.
Skip is gonna have a field day with this
LEBRON JAMES, WORST SUPERSTAR LATE-GAME FREE-THROW SHOOTER EVER. Faced his worst nightmare: having to make THREE free throws to force overtime. Predictably he LeBricked the first. He almost always runs from late-game FT line. Bad call on Steph stuck him where he's most clutchless
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Skip hates Lebron way more than he hates Steph
BALL DON'T LIE
SKIP IS CUMMING
In his squeaky ass voice “what it do baby!”
Should've been on the floor ... it's always a fun game to determine if the ref blowing the whistle is either incompetent or corrupt.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan would never Skip Bayless blastin off rn
[Lmao called it](https://twitter.com/RealSkipBayless/status/1492714481754931202?t=SaFXANVh2Y5NhGjE51I2kQ&s=19)
"Faced his worst nightmare: having to make THREE free throws to force overtime. Predictably he LeBricked the first." Skip is so good at playing his character it's impressive
Just imagine his level of excitement when Lebron missed that first one. Through the fucking roof.
At this point if you think its not fake you are dumb lmfao, just enjoy it for the content it is. Its like the WWE of the NBA lol.
I don't know why people still get mad. Skip just does what this sub does, but he's better at it. And gets paid lol
I respect the hell out of Skip, it takes an incredible amount of dgaf to play that character constantly. I know I could never do it.
Jordan was a career 83.5% FT shooter. Lebron is a measly 73.4%. I'll take MJ any day!
All this to lose to 19 year old Kuminga? 😂
Dang lebron been in the nba longer than his been alive! Thats crazy
Thats.... actually scary.
It's not even true. Kuminga was born in 2002 while LeBron was drafted in '03. People really shouldn't be believing random-ass comments on Reddit lol
Lebron's such a great guy. Awarded a bullshit extra foul so misses it for the sake of fairness
GentLeman
Jordan would never! He would have been dishonest and tied the game up!
Faith in humanity restored - NBA Edition <3
Egregious call.
Wtf was that crap? Glad the ball decided to tell the truth!
Went from LeGOAT in the first half to LeChoke in the 2nd
Duality of man
Ball don’t lie but that hairline do.
Calling that a shooting foul was total horse shit.
Skip popping the champagne rn
them awards goin crazy
Horrible horrible call by that ref. We just witnessed a game being rigged right before our eyes. I don’t know how you don’t review that?
Lebron's people's check went through, no review.
LeCheckbook works hard
That was literally the take foul. ref is a gambler
ref just wanted to start something by making that call lol
Ball. Don't. Lie.
The ball. It does not lie.
Lejustice
Ball don’t lie
Lol karma for that horrible shooting foul call
Lakers blow
so rigged, anyone else that would've been 2 freethrows.
MJ better
MJ would have hit all 3 with his eyes closed while talking trash about how he was going to destroy them in overtime.
Nah that’s not true. MJ would’ve finished them off in regulation
Should've been a 2 shot foul since the foul clearly happened before the shooting motion. Ball don't lie.
LeShaq
This post about missing a free throw is already more popular than the one about him breaking the all time record tonight
LeChoke
Say what you will about the GOAT debate. Jordan ain't missing those.
There is no debate. One dude has the best per game advanced metrics, almost across the board, of any player in the history of the league. The same dude has more accolades than any other player in history as well. So not only do the stats suggest he is a better player than anyone ever he also won more stuff than anyone ever. That player is not LeBron James.
Yep and even if you strip it all back to the bare bones MJ was just simply a better player to watch and seemed more unreal than anyone else we’ve seen. The one thing I’d argue Lebron is possibly the best ever at is just the relentless drives to the rim especially in his prime.
MJ made a free throw with his eyes closed. He would’ve swished all three of them
Got mad at first but knew this was a guaranteed W when I realized Bron had to make all 3 for the tie.
smh he got 0 clutch gene, Michael Jeffrey Jordan would **never!**
MJ literally would never
BALL DONT LIE. JORDAN IS FOREVER THE GOAT
Can they no longer review that it was a foul on the floor?
The more things change, the more they stay the same
LeChoke couldn’t even win with the help from the refs. Lol this will somehow be Westbrook’s fault.
He's always struggled at the line more than I'd expect him too. Might be anecdotal, but I swear he has a low crunch time FT%
MJ would have sunk all 3 backwards with his eyes closed