NBA

Dwight Howard Is An 82 Percent Free-Throw Shooter This Season (In Practice)

Dwight Howard is a prolifically bad free-throw shooter, but that’s only among the free throws you see him take. Secretly, he’s a great free-throw shooter, and he’s just playing us all for fools.

You see, the 49.5 percent at which Howard makes his free throws is simply a product of pressure. Unprecedented pressure. Apparently the presence of fans and the game-time atmosphere decreases Howard’s free-throw percentage by 32.5 percent. Don’t believe me? Go to the tape:

At least Howard is practicing more than the rest of his Laker teammates, though he’s taken considerably more in-game free throws than anyone else on the team not named Kobe Bryant. But seriously, this is a joke, right? I mean, a 33 percent deviation from practice to game? I guess his sample size is considerably smaller, but it’s hard to account for the drop-off. I don’t think it’ll get opposing teams to stop the Hack-A-Howard crusade.

[Reddit, Getty Images]