Make Every Free Throw, Author at Make Every Free Throw

While the whole Donald Sterling racism fiasco was boiling over, his team was beginning to unleash their secret weapon on the court: free throws. During game 5 on Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors unveiled a new strategy: foul the crap out of DeAndre Jordan, statistically one of the worst free throw shooters on the team. Did it work? The good folks at Grantland (a sports site I’m proudly addicted to) have an almost poetic answer:

At any Clippers game, Jordan at the free throw line is a complicated experience. All Jordan free throws are preceded by stadiumwide cheers to encourage him. It’s like a gigantic millionaire turns into everyone’s little brother, and all they want is to watch him do well.

When he misses after all that, it’s painful to watch.

When he makes them, the whole place goes delirious.

It’s pretty much basketball in its simplest possible form.

And Jordan made his free throws Tuesday. Most of them, anyway. He went 6-for-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, with all of Staples Center getting a little crazier with every make, and a Clippers win becoming a little more inevitable in the process. It’s a reminder of how stupid and fun sports can be. There’s nothing more basic and mundane than free throws, but Jordan turns them into an emotional roller coaster.

William Shakespeare, who just a couple of days ago turned 450, couldn’t have put it better. Reading that passage is enough to make us at Make Every Free Throw want to launch into our own fit of poetics. So here goes.

In a way, the whole Donald-Sterling-being-an-obnoxious-racist/Clippers-winning-game-5 can be compared to the foul/free throw cycle. An act of wrongdoing is committed, and the wronged party is given an opportunity to, in a certain way, right that wrong. This case is a bit odd: the wrongdoer has committed a morally reprehensible act against essentially everyone (that’s what racism is) but especially his team, who during the middle of a clutch game found themselves with an aging overweight and way-too-tanned albatross around their collective neck. But there’s a chance for redemption. Start winning, and you prove to the world that you’re ready to dump your socially inept neanderthal of an owner and be picked up by someone who has class.

And that’s exactly what the Clippers did.

Free Throws have an element of righteousness to them, righting the wrongs of an imperfect game, and by extension, world. But they also win games. Without all of Jordan’s free throws, it would have been a lot harder to win. They may be “mundane” sometimes, but they’re a key to winning. And they might also help to get rid of racism and save the world. Just sayin.

The Historic Meltdown of Donald Sterling

April 30, 2014 by Make Every Free Throw

The Clippers used to be the laughingstock of Los Angeles, and just when things were starting to look good for them, this had to happen. Donald Sterling is the team’s owner, and for a the better part of the decade people have been pointing out that the screening process for his rental properties are pretty racist. See this article from 2006, in which an ESPN columnist points out that he won’t rent apartments in Beverly Hills to black people. But we, the easily distracted general public, needed for this painfully obvious fact to be presented to us in a much more obvious way in order for it to become the scandal it deserved to be eight years ago.

And finally, Sterling has delivered, serving up a sizzling plate of red hot racism that was sure to get attention as it was directed at his most visible property (the Clippers), and delivered in the form of a tape that surfaced on TMZ. Here are some highlights:

— “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” (3:30)

— “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.” (5:15)

— “I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.” (7:45)

— “…Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.” (9:13)

Then came the outrage. Magic Johnson pledged never to go to a Clippers game again. The NBA fined him $2.5 million (the maximum allowed under their charter) and banned him from all games, practices, and other NBA events. Michael Jordan was silent on the issue – which led plenty of people to direct their rage at him as well.

Despite this historic meltdown, the Clippers themselves seem to be taking the news in stride. The team easily beat the Golden State Warriors last night, leading the series 3-2 as the playoffs continue. And in fact, this news might even be a blessing in disguise. If the Clippers can shed their racist owner, they might really become a force to be reckoned with.

March Madness: Free Throws Help Kentucky Upset Louisville in Sweet 16

March 29, 2014March 29, 2014 by Make Every Free Throw

After recently retooling our website, one of the biggest points we make is that, since clutch games are decided by only a few points, free throws can win or lose the game, and make the difference between whether or not a team advances. And what better example of that than a the recent Sweet 16 game yesterday between Kentucky and Louisville for this year’s March Madness? Favored Louisville was upset by Kentucky, in large part due to free throw shooting. NJ.com has the details:

Aaron Harrison hit a 3-pointer for the go-ahead score with 39 seconds left and Julius Randle made a pair of clutch free throws to lift the fantastic freshman of Kentucky to a 74-69 victory over their in-state rivals.

We’ll be keeping our eyes on the free throw shooting for the rest of this series. It wouldn’t surprise us to find that free throws play a key role in more close games as we come down to the final four.

March Madness’s “First Four” Kicks Off, Will Free Throws Play a Factor?

March 21, 2014March 21, 2014 by Make Every Free Throw

Tonight is the “first four” of NCAA’s March Madness. This means that the usual 64 teams have been upped to 68 and… well, I’ll let the sarcastic commentators at Guardian Sports explain:

Q:These “First Four” games are just play-in games, does the NCAA think we’re stupid?

A: Yes.

Early favorites include the Florida Gators, Arizona Wildcats, Virginia Cavaliers, and the Wichita State Shockers. One of the biggest concerns people have voiced is that people will confuse Cavaliers coach Tony Bennet with the singer Tony Bennet.

In terms of free throws, UCLA is looking strong – they even got some props from the student paper at rival USC, whose students are usually more concerned with planning how to graffiti the giant bear statue on the UCLA campus. The Bruins were able to beat the Arizona Wildcats during the season, will they do it again?

Welcome to the new Freethrow.com

February 21, 2014March 21, 2014 by Make Every Free Throw

As many of you have almost certainly noticed, it’s been a long long time since we’ve updated our site. Yes, unfortunately all of us involved in Make Every Free Throw and Free Throw: Seven Steps to Success haven’t had much time to keep this site maintained, resulting in a god-awful 90s era design, featuring a gif image generated long before Buzz Feed made them retro cool. But thankfully, all of that is a thing of the past. Our new design is up and running, thanks to the good folks at Word Press who make sophisticated, decent looking sites easy to pull off. We’re bringing some of the classic features of the site back online, along with some new ones: a new PLAYER’S EDITION video featuring the best of Dr. Tom in an easily viewable format, along with downloadable version of the video courtesy of E-junkie. Stay tuned!