The Best Free Throw Shooter In History

Who is the best free throw shooter in NBA history? A big question and like many things in basketball most people don’t have a clear cut answer. In this article we are going to break it down and try to determine who the best free throw shooters are. Free throws for some are the easiest points on the board and for others are the bane of their basketball game, today however we are going to be looking at the very best free throw shooters that entertained us since the stat was tracked.

In todays basketball players are some of the most skilled the NBA has ever seen and because of this many games come down to a few crucial possesions in the 4th quarter. If there is a poor free throw shooter on the court opponents may opt to intentionally foul them to stop the game clock and play the percentages in the hopes the player fouled misses the shot. Throughout NBA history many players mastered the art of the free throw and they are the best free throw shooters of all time. We will strictly be analysing regular season stats only as just because a player doesn’t make the playoffs it doesn’t mean they are not good to great free throw shooters.

The NBA Free Throws Made And Attempted Records Regular Season

To determine who the best free throw shooter in NBA history is we have to look at a few different metrics. The first two of which will be total free throws made and the total free throws attempted. The player that holds the record for most free throws made is Karl Malone and in his 19 season playing career he amassed a total of 9,787 free throws made in 1476 games played. That means for his 19 year career he was getting 6.6 points from free throws a game, thats more than the averages of some players. His 9787 free throws made is also higher than the career totals of Brandon Roy who amassed 6,136 in his unfortunately cut short career. Here’s a list of the top 50 free throws made list:

Karl Malone perhaps unsurprisingly has also got the record for free throws attempted in the NBA with 13,188, this gives him a 74.2% shooting percentage on free throw attempts. Not a bad number but as we can see whilst Karl Malone has made more free throws than anyone else we can also see that its mostly a product of him being a decent free throw shooter on decent volume for a long 19 year career. Here’s another table depicting the top 50 NBA free throw attempts leaders:

The NBA Free Throw Percentage Leaders

The next metric we are going to look at is free throw percentage, most would obviously argue that this is the most important statistic when determining who the best free throw shooters of all time are so we would be fools not to look at it here. The NBA all time leader in free throw percentage is Steph Curry who shoots a scintillating 90.74% from the line throughout his NBA career so far, he isn’t ahead by far though as Steve Nash is in second place with 90.43%. The only other NBA player averaging above 90% is Mark Price who shot 90.39%. As you can see the 90% club is highly exclusive and an incredibly rare feat for one to sustain throughout their career. There isn’t much of a difference between the top free throw shooters when it comes to percentage at all. Here is a list of the top 50 Free Throw Shooters by percentage:

As you can see there are only 5 percentage points between the top place Steph Curry and the 50th placed Ben Gordon, we also have to bare in mind these players all took different amounts of shots and their roles for their teams are different. For example star players who have the ball in their hands a lot are much more likely to get free throw attempts than a bench player or role player. When looking at the three tables we can see that only 4 NBA players in history are in the top 50 for all three categories of makes, attempts and percentage. These four players are Reggie Miller, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Dirk Nowitzki. There is not a single other player that have shot at an all time level on higher volume than these guys right here. Now before all of the Steph Curry haters go crazy don’t worry we understand that his playstyle along with opponents unwillingness to foul him have limited his total volume of attempts not to mention his ankle injuries at the start of his career which limited his games played and thus the amount of free throws he could take. To take this into account we will be including any active players who shoot a higher percentage than the 4 players listed above, the only two players that fulfill this criteria are Steph Curry and Damian Lillard so we will be adding them to the shortlist as well.

In Conclusion

These 6 players are the most prolific free throw shooters ever. Steph Curry with the highest percentage but on a lower volume. Damian Lillard with the second highest percentage on good volume. Reggie Miller on a good volume and percentage. Kevin Durant on elite volume and great efficiency. Dirk Nowitzki on good volume and percentage slightly below Miller and James Harden on all time best volume but a few percentage points lower than the others in this list. We would say that Durant and Harden are the most prolific free throw shooters with their foul drawing ability and the most likely to bury a team in 4th quarter free throws whilst Dirk and Miller are middle of the pack (only amongst this elite best of the best list) but most certainly deserving of recognition. Lillard has great volume and elite percentage so anyone could be forgiven for saying he is the best however with the nature of free throws being the same shot everytime under the same circumstances its really hard to overlook the consistency of Curry and his all time percentage on a good if not elite volume, especially when the factors of injuries and other teams reluctance to foul him. Therefore we have to say that Stephen Curry is the all time best free throw shooter in NBA History.