Why was Shaq Bad at Free-Throws? Stats & Facts

Shaquille O’Neal was one of the best big men the NBA has ever seen. Many fans often wondered if he was a better free-throw shooter would he have been the best ever? For Shaq, when it comes to the free-line it’s a love-hate relationship. Shaq was a terrible free-throw shooter during his time in the NBA and many people believed it was due to the fact he didn’t practice enough. But this could be further from the truth.

Why was Shaq so bad at free-throws? Shaq stood at 7 feet 1 inches tall and had massive hands which made the basketball in his hands much smaller and difficult to shoot. When he would shot and release the ball it would be on the tips of his fingers, instead of the pads. This made his shot flat and it lacked arc, making it much more difficult for the ball to go into the basket. Shaq has also said that he tensed up during games when he was at the free-throw line due to the pressure.

Other reasons as to why Shaq struggled from the line will be discussed in this article along with the number of points Shaq could have scored had he shot a better percentage than 52 percent from the field for his career.

 

Shaq’s free throw percentage?

Shaq’s best year from the line came in the 2002/03 season with the Lakers where he shot 63 percent, but his worse year was 46 percent with Miami in the 2004/05 season.

Both of those years he averaged 10 attempts a game. But his worse performance from the line was his second year with the Heat where he shot 33% in the 2006/07 playoffs.

Shaq will always be known as one of the worse free-throw shooters in NBA history shooting 52 percent for his career from the line, but he actually isn’t the worse ever.

Although it does seem like his name is tied to poor free-throw shooting and the Hack-a-Shaq rule which that alone associated withhis name makes him seem like the worse player from the line ever, he actually isn’t.

There are three other players that shot worse than Shaq has in their careers in the NBA.

• Wilt Chamberlain #3
• Chris Dudley #2
• Ben Wallace #1

Wilt Chamberlain

The only man to score 100 points in a game, lead the league in assists as a center, averaged 50 points in a season, and mate with 20,000 females.

What a resume. Wilt shot 51% from the charity strike attempting 11,862 free throws while making 6,057 of them.

Wilt wasn’t a very good free-throw shooter, it looks even worse when you watch him shoot.

I cringe at how far he shoots from the line and just chucks it at the rim.

He is definitely one of the worse to shoot free-throws until Chris Dudley arrived.

Fun Fact: At one point Wilt was dunking his free-throws in college from running up to the basket and jumping a few steps away from the line to dunk it.

He was shooting 100 percent from the line. The governing officials of the NCAA had to do something about it, which they did, they banned dunking from the line.

Chris Dudley

Dudley played on 5 different teams in the NBA during his 16-year tenure as a center.

Dudley’s role was more of a defender and rebounder, his career stats were 3.9 pts, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks a game.

When he did go to the free-throw line he shot 45 percent at 1.7 attempts a game.

Making 691 shots out of 1508 attempts. If you think that’s bad bring on Ben Wallace.

Ben Wallace

Center, Ben Wallace was a 4 time defensive player of the year award winner in his career, won the rebounding award twice, and even won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

Ben Wallace’s game was tailored for defense more than it was offense, he attempted 2.5 free throws a game for his career, making 1,109 shots out of 2,679 attempts for 41.5% all-time at the line.

The worse in NBA history.

How many points would Shaq have if he made more free throws?

Something many of us wonders is how many more points would Shaq be averaging if he was a better free throw shooter? Good question.

Shaq for his career averaged a career 23.7 points a game. Took 11,252 shots and made 5,935 of them, giving him 52 percent from the line.

Looking at his stats he averaged 9.6 attempts per 36 minutes, let’s round this to 10 even.

An increase of just 10 percent would give him an extra point average on top of his current points per game each season.

If for every 10 percent increase to his free-throw percentage, he would average an additional point, so if he was an 80 percent free-throw shooter he would have averaged 2.5-3 points more a season based on 10 attempts a game.

Let’s take a look at his all-time scoring:

Shaq didn’t break the 30,000 point mark, the all-time leader in points. He had 28, 596 points for his career and his 10th all time in NBA history.

But let’s see what percentage he would have had to shoot in order to break the 30,000 point mark:

Made 5,935 out of 11,252 @ 52% = 28, 596 points ( Currently)

Made 6,751 out of 11,252 @ 60% = 29, 412 points

Made 7,313 out of 11,252 @ 65% = 29, 974 points

Made 7,426 out of 11,252  @ 66% = 30, 087 points ( This would put him 8th all-time in scoring in the NBA)

Made 7,876 out of 11,252  @ 70% = 30, 537 points 

Made 8,439 out of 11,252 @  75%  = 31,100 points

Made 9,001 out of  11,252 @ 80% = 31,662 points ( This would put him 6th all-time in scoring in the NBA)

Made 9,564 out of 11,252 @ 85% = 32,225 points 

Made 10,126 out of 11,252 @ 90% = 32,787 points (This would put him 5th all-time in scoring in the NBA)

Why Shaquille O’neal was a poor free-throw shooter?

Shaq’s theory as to why he believed he was bad at free-throws was because the man upstairs kept him humble as he had a huge ego.

Stating that if he shot 90% from the line he would have been arrogant.

From a technical standpoint, O’neal’s huge hands and height didn’t help either, he was practically leveled with the rim.

For a guy who’s reach from a standstill could almost touch the rim, it was difficult for him to add arc to his shot from the line.

He also had his elbow chicken winged out as he shot and from a fundamental standpoint, this is known to cause one to miss more.

The arm should be tucked in at 90 degrees the way a good shooter would shoot.

Something to consider is those who are good mid-range to three-point shooters are much more efficient from the line than those who are not.

This is why you see a lot of big men who are terrible at free-throws as they have no mid-range game.

Big men play with their back to the basket 12 feet and in from the hoop.

There is a strong correlation between players who can knock down a 15-foot jumper and their free throw percentage.

They are usually doing well at the line. But not all players are created equal.

Although Shaq tried many things to combat his poor shooting percentage, he did not believe in sports psychologists to help with his shooting from the line and he was not going to shoot underhand either as Rick Barry did, he thought it was ugly and boring.

Shaq added that he wasn’t about to embarrass himself trying.

Shaquille also mentioned that when he would practice by himself he would shoot very well, but as soon as it was game time and the lights and cameras were on him it was a different story.

I wrote an article recently on why centers are bad free-throw shooters? and talked about how shooting in practice is nowhere close to game-like shots, you can find that article by Clicking Here!

Shaq shot over 11,000+ shots from the line in the NBA, you would think he had enough practice to be efficient from the line, but the reality is it’s not just one thing that makes a player a bad free-throw shooter.

That may have been a difficult task for Shaq you are asking him to shoot 15 percent better from the line in order for him to cross the 30,000 points mark.

The other argument for how many points he might have added to his game could be countered with the fact that teams may have not fouled him as much and used the Hack-A-Shaq strateg.

Shaq would then be known as a good to moderate free-throw shooter, giving him fewer opportunities to go to the line.

Did Shaq practice free throws?

Many of us believe that Shaq was terrible at free-throws because he was lazy and never practiced but this was further from the truth.

In an interview with USA Today, Shaq went on to surprise most people when he said that during the beginning of his career he would actively shoot every day until he made 200 makes from the free-throw line.

When he became a superstar in the NBA and was able to afford his own basketball court in his home he said that he shot all the time.

He even said he was Steve Kerr when it came to shooting free-throws by himself, but when the pressure was on he would stiffen up.

Shaquille O’Neal averaged 9.3 attempts a game in his 19-year career in the NBA.

To say he was lazy and didn’t practice would be crazy as we know free-throws cost team games and even championships.

If that isn’t motivation to practice I don’t know what is.

Shaq was a monster in the league and anytime he touched the basketball it seemed one of two things were going to happen, he would make the basket shooting 60% around the rim or he would be fouled and going to the line to shoot.

Knowing you will be at the line half the time when you touch the ball should be enough motivation to go out and practice as an NBA Superstar would.

What was the hack a Shaq rule? because of Shaq?

The Hack-A-Shaq rule was a strategy that was implemented by Don Nelson in 1997 but it wasn’t on Shaq that it was first used on.

The first victim of the Hack-A-Shaq strategy was Dennis Rodman, who at the time was playing for the Chicago Bulls.

Don Nelson was coaching the Dallas Mavericks and subbed in Bubba Wells to implement his strategy by fouling Dennis Rodman away from the ball.

Rodman was 46% from the line that season. Dallas was banking on the fact that Rodman would miss both free-throws, therefore the Mavericks would get the ball back.

The hack-a-Shaq was used in times when a team was down by a few baskets, the strategy was implemented to chip away at the lead.

In the case of Dennis Rodman, the strategy did not work as Rodman shot 9 for 12 from the field, and well Bubba fouled out.

Don Nelson continued with this strategy and used it on Shaq several times that year, as Shaq was shooting 55% from the line.

It eventually became a strategy many NBA coaches used to combat scoring deficits and help give a team a chance to get back in the game.

Most of the time the strategy was used before the game was out of reach with 4 to 5 minutes left in the game and also the last 2 minutes.

The counter-strategy was to sub out players like Shaq out of the game completely.

What rule was changed because of Shaq?

As Shaq left the league in 2011 the Hack-A- Shaq was still used in the NBA.

Dwight Howard another product of poor free-throw shooting was the new hack-a-Shaq victim, while the use of this strategy was actually increasing year to year,  it was actually slowing the game down and extending it 15 minutes longer.

It wasn’t until 2016 when the NBA finally changed the rule to when players fouled away from the ball in the last two minutes of any quarter they would get one free-throw and the ball back.

Not many incentives there to foul now is there.

 

Did Shaq ever shoot a 3 pointer? How many 3s did Shaq hit?

NBA basketball is exciting as it has ever been, the game is ever-changing, with more outside shooting and especially three-point shots.

But the NBA today wasn’t like the way the NBA was when Shaq was playing and even if it was, you wouldn’t see Shaq at the three-point line set up to shoot from downtown.

He just wasn’t very good shooting 12 feet and beyond.

Although Shaq did shoot three-pointers in his career, as he took 22 of them.

Most of them were not by choice but because time was running out and he needed to shoot the basketball.

Out of those 22 shots he took, he made one three-pointer with the Orlando magic earlier in his career as the time was running out just before the half.