Although free throws are the basic skill of a player, many center players in the NBA have too strong muscles, resulting in them not mastering the strength after fierce confrontation, and they are always struggling at the free throw line. Many dominant centers also have common problems with bad free throws, such as Howard, Big Ben, O'Neal and Chamberlain, among others. Therefore, many teams will choose to use shark cutting tactics to send these bad free throw centers to the free throw line in exchange for the ball.
However, due to the gradual improvement of NBA center technology in recent years, the shark cutting tactic has gradually withdrawn. However, in the era when sharks were prevalent, there were still some center players, but the free throws were very powerful, and they were not afraid of being cut, and even wanted the other party to send themselves to the free throw line! So, which players were not afraid of shark-cutting tactics at all?
Don't look at the pistons bad boy army's biggest villain Lambier in the league, but no one wants to send him to the free throw line for deliberate fouls. Lambier made a total of 2,916 free throws in his career, hitting 2,440 of them, shooting 83.7%! It can be said that although Lambier has a lot of dirty moves on the court, his own skills are also very strong, otherwise, he will not become the main member of the Pistons' two-time championship and starting center.
In addition to Lambier, Mike Gominsky, who was selected with the seventh overall pick in the first round in 1980, is also a very good center in the free throws. Despite being 2.11 meters tall, Gominsky has a defender-like soft feel. Gominsky shot 84.3 percent from the free throws in his career, especially in the 87-88 season, when he stood on the free throw line 226 times, hit 211 goals, and conceded only 14 free throws! It's scary for a center.
Yao Ming, a centre forward from China, has very solid basic skills, especially the free throws are very stable, and even sometimes he is a player of the team who performs technical foul penalties. Yao Mingsheng's soft feel makes him very stable not only in the hook but also in the shooting, and this shooting technique also makes him feel at the free throw line. Yao Ming has made a total of 2984 free throws in his career, hitting 2485 shots, and the free throw shooting rate is as high as 83.3%, which is higher than the free throw shooting rate of many defenders in active play! In that era when cutting centers was prevalent, it was absolutely impossible to cut Yao Ming unless the coach was crazy.
The last man is the center with the most accurate free throws in the NBA, he is Jack Hickma, who entered the league in 1977 for a total of 14 seasons, a total of 5053 free throws, hit 4292 of them, and the free throw shooting rate is as high as 84.9%! One of the highest seasons reached a terrifying 92.2%! Almost as accurate as Curry's free throws! At that time, few people could have imagined that there was such a stable center with free throws. （ikuet）