The Art of the Perfect Free Throw

By: Edoardo Giribaldi

Following years of relentless training, suggesting to Shaquille O'Neal that he could finally achieve an impeccable free throw ratio by simply leafing through a scientific journal or watching Asian basketball might seem surprising.

Coach Eric Fawcett, a consultant for NCAA Division I teams, has observed a trend in the Korean Basketball League where players boost their free throw percentages by exclusively employing bank shots, successfully rebounding the ball off the backboard.

Fawcett noticed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that an unusually high number of KBL players are above an 80% rate of free throws realization and, in the last season, four of the nine top scorers employed this technique.

For many NBA players, free throws remain one of the most challenging aspects of the game. The “Hack-a-Shaq,” a technique involving intentional fouls on a targeted player, owes its name to Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most dominant players of all time, and yet surprisingly plagued by poor free throws percentages.

This aspect of the game has been the object of several scientific researches, including one by North Carolina State University professors Larry M. Silverberg and Chau Train in 1998.

They developed software to reproduce millions of trajectories and concluded that the optimal free throw should aim at about three hertz of backspin, launched at a 52-degree angle, with the back of the rim as the focal point.

Discussing the emerging South Korean trend with the online magazine Slate, Silverberg reported that direct and bank shot free throws have similar success probabilities. However, he noted that not everyone possesses the strength required for the bank shot. “Some big guys find shorter shots too delicate so they would logically like the bank shot,” he said.

This assertion is confirmed by former San Antonio Spurs 250-pound power forward Tim Duncan. NBA analyst at ESPN Kirk Goldsberry found that the number of Duncan's bank shots in the 2006-07 season was barely reached by the top 10 scorers in the 2018-2019 season, highlighting the uniqueness of this approach.

While the quest for the perfect free throw may be elusive, the tiniest details can make a significant difference in what Silverberg describes as “a game of inches.”