Free Throw Quotes:

I'll hit them when it matters.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Matter, Free Throw

I'd shoot zero percent before I'd shoot underhanded.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Zero, Free Throw

When I concentrate and focus, they always go in, so I'm gonna continue to do that, and they will go in.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Focus, Free Throw

You aren't going to win championships unless you make layups and free throws.

- Don Meyer

topic: Basketball, Winning, Championship, Free Throw

To win the big games you must get to the Free Throw line, and then you must make them.

- Rick Majerus

topic: Basketball, Winning, Games, Free Throw

I never think about missing a free throw. All that goes through my mind when I'm at the line is seeing the ball go through the bottom of the net.

- Brad Daugherty

topic: Basketball, Thinking, Missing, Free Throw

If I had stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform.

- Michael Jordan

source: Michael Jordan (1994). “I can't accept not trying: Michael Jordan on the pursuit of excellence”

topic: Wrestling, Practice, People, Free Throw, Camera Lenses

It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying "Shhh" and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling.

- Al McGuire

topic: Moving, Kids, Golf, Free Throw, Funny Golf

Winning a postseason game is like winning five regular season games. There is just no feeling like it. Everything is magnified. Every free throw, turnover, shot and play.

- Don Meyer

topic: Basketball, Winning, Games, Free Throw, Postseason

I'm not the greatest long-distance shooter, I know that. But I know if I can get around that free-throw line area, a lot of times you've just got to hope I miss.

- Chris Paul

topic: Distance, Long, Missing, Free Throw

I'm not the guy whose gonna shoot 10,000 free-throws until I'm Michael Jordan - and it did happen kind of accidentally that I said, "Okay, yeah, I'll try singing."

- D.A. Wallach

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Guy, Singing, Trying, Free Throw

If you want Shaq to be Shaq, you've got to remember that Shaq is known for wreaking havoc offensively - 26,000-plus points without consistently making free throws. Don't have me doing something I'm not used to doing. I ain't used to being a pick-setter. Let me badda-bing, badda-bang.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Want, Bangs, Free Throw, Shaq

The only thing I pay attention to with free throws is what a guy does in the final four minutes of a game. If you can improve players' self-esteem and confidence, get them to relax, teach visualization and routine, they will shoot as well, or better, with the pressure on.

- John Calipari

topic: Basketball, Self Esteem, Player, Free Throw

A free throw seems boring but then when you sort of dig into what's going on and the history and psychology and the social anthropology around the free throw - it's interesting.

- Alex Blumberg

source: "Here’s How to Get Rich or Die Podcasting". Interview with Edwin Rios, www.motherjones.com. December 25, 2015.

topic: Interesting, Psychology, Boring, Free Throw

Maybe it’s my own fault. Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn’t. Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line, and not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner. That my game was built on flash, and not fire. Maybe it’s my fault that you didn’t see that failure gave me strength; that my pain was my motivation. Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a God given gift, and not something I worked for every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game. Or maybe you’re just making excuses.

- Michael Jordan

topic: Basketball, Pain, Motivation, Free Throw

Flowers are the free throw of love. You're looking for the clutch three-pointer from downtown.

- Daniel Holloway

topic: Basketball, Love You, Flower, Free Throw, Clutch

I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially-fraught free throws.

- John Green

source: John Green (2012). “The Fault in Our Stars”, p.26, Penguin

topic: Hipster, Voice, Water, Free Throw, Augustus

We're shooting 100 percent - 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.

- Norm Stewart

topic: Basketball, Fields, Shooting, Free Throw, Funny Basketball

I knew I was going to make one. I wanted to make two, but the first one rattled in and rattled right out.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Two, Firsts, Free Throw

You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him.

- Oscar Robertson

topic: Basketball, Player, World, Free Throw, Recipe For Success

I can't begin to describe the amount of crap I've taken for being a lousy free-throw shooter.

- Dennis Rodman

topic: Basketball, Taken, Being Free, Free Throw, Shooter

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.

- Mike Krzyzewski

source: American Academy of Achievement interview, www.achievement.org. May 22, 1997.

topic: Basketball, Winning, Games, Free Throw

I have much less confidence on the greens than I do on the court. Everybody asks like if putting is like shooting free throws. Like that six-footer for par or something like that. It has a very similar kind of mindset.

- Stephen Curry

source: Source: wearegolf.org

topic: Shooting, Six, Kind, Free Throw

Probably a lack of concentration. I always hit them during practice. I just need to concentrate. Even though I should a lousy percentage, I beat a lot of teams from the line. You have to have mechanics. But see, what people don't know about my wrists is my wrists don't go all the way back. My wrists are crooked and don't go all the way back. I've been practicing and working on them. You can't do everything good.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Team, Practice, Free Throw

If I was able to have the game I have and shoot 80% from the line, I'd probably be an arrogant person rather than a humble one. Everything happens for a reason.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Humble, Arrogant Person, Free Throw, Happens For A Reason

It's part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that's just taking away from how I play. That's disrespectful to me.

- Kevin Durant

topic: Basketball, Games, Play, Free Throw, Refs

In this millennium that we live in, the 'Hack-a-Shaq'has proven not to work. It might work a couple games every now and then, but when it comes to the playoffs or a championship series, it doesn't work - not at all.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Couple, Games, Free Throw, Shaq

That game was dedicated to Rick Adelman. I'm at home, in the bathroom, trying to take a dump, flipping through the channels and he's complaining (on TV) about how I'm stepping over the line. I can't even do a No. 2 in peace. I'm sitting there grunting at 12:30 at night. Can I go one day without somebody saying something negative about me?

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Home, Night, Free Throw, Dump

Me having a beautiful wife and great family and friends around me, all the money I've got, all the things that I've got, a Ferrari that I just ripped the top off of and turned into a convertible, the rings I got, the two mansions on the water, a master's in criminal justice, I'm a cop, plus I look good. So me shooting 40 percent at the foul line is just God's way of saying that nobody's perfect. If I shot 90 percent from the line, it just wouldn't be right.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Beautiful, Two, Ripped, Free Throw

I'm upset at myself. I should have had 50. I missed 13 free throws. That's unacceptable. If I want to be accepted by Wilt and Kareem and Russell I've got to start playing better than that. Right now I'm still in the class of Hakeem and David Robinson and that's not good enough for me. I want to be out there with the immortals.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Should Have, Class, Free Throw

Yeah, D-Wade called me up last night and said that he saw some film of me in high school and thinks that my form then was better and that I should shoot like that. I told him I'd think about it and then my pops called and said something like that so I decided to revert back and then.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, School, Night, Free Throw, D Wade

Coach (Pat) Riley told us on June 8 we'd win the title on June 20.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Winning, June, Titles, Free Throw

Athletes often start life at the opposite end of the wealth and prestige spectrum, but as soon as they exhibit an unusual talent for swinging a bat or sinking a free-throw they may find that the rules have been suspended for them. They are waved through school and into the pros, and incidents of bad behavior are overlooked or covered up.

- Jeffrey Kluger

topic: School, Athlete, Opposites, Free Throw, Bad Behavior

We changed our rules. If a player does not have some sot of altercation on or off the court once each month, we fine him...The guys that are our top four scorers, each of them will be required once every two months to appear on MTV. The guys who shoot the worst free throws over a one-month period, next time we have a TV game they're required to look into the camera and beat their chests after they make a good play.

- Gregg Popovich

topic: Sports, Player, Mtv, Free Throw, Each Month

The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain's free throws.

- Rick Wise

topic: Baseball, Free Throw, Designated Hitter, Chamberlain

Reading old travel books or novels set in faraway places, spinning globes, unfolding maps, playing world music, eating in ethnic restaurants, meeting friends in cafes . . . all these things are part of never-ending travel practice, not unlike doing scales on a piano, shooting free-throws, or meditating.

- Phil Cousineau

topic: Book, Reading, Practice, Free Throw, Faraway Places

I'm pretty fundamental when it comes to running. A basketball player doesn't practice his free throw shooting by doing slam dunks all over the place. He does it by practicing free throws. That's the attitude I take: You don't get better at running by doing everything but running. You get better by running.

- Chris Solinsky

topic: Basketball, Running, Attitude, Free Throw, Slam Dunk

When I was a freshman, I fooled around with shooting free throws this way: For some reason, I thought you had to stay within the top half of that free-throw circle, so I would step back to just inside the top of the circle, take off from behind the line and dunk. They outlawed that, but I wouldn't have done it in a game, anyway. I was a good free throw shooter in college." Actually he was a 62% free throw shooter, which is poor except in comparison to his 51% as a pro.

- Wilt Chamberlain

topic: College, Games, Circles, Free Throw

I don't think you ever want to be too settled, because once you become settled, you lose a lot of your drive. I mean, I am settled off the court; the business side of things, the papers, contracts and all of that, but there are a lot things that I need to work on, on the court, like my free-throw shooting, which has been terrible. I need to work on being more demanding in the post. My teammates are going to come to me and I just need to go out there and score in the post, which will open up things for our guards.

- Andrew Bogut

source: Interview with Bobby Ciafardini, www.insidehoops.com. November 10, 2008.

topic: Sports, Mean, Thinking, Free Throw

A lot of coaches play percentages when it comes to me, but that's just a way of saying that you can't stop me.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Play, Way, Free Throw, Can't Stop Me

(The Hack-A-Shaq is) just a way of telling me that you can't stop me. Thank you. I appreciate it.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Appreciate, Way, Free Throw, Can't Stop Me

I think everything happens for a reason. With my game being the way it is, if I did shoot 80 percent, I'd be a harder person to deal with. It just keeps me humble. Just imagine me in my game shooting the same percentage that Reggie Miller shoots. I wouldn't even talk to you guys because I wouldn't have to.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Humble, Thinking, Free Throw, Happens For A Reason

I nodded. I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin. And I liked that he had two names. I’ve always liked people with two names, because you get to make up your mind what you call them: Gus or Augustus? Me, I was always just Hazel, univalent Hazel.

- John Green

source: John Green (2012). “The Fault in Our Stars”, p.26, Penguin

topic: Names, Two, Voice, Free Throw, Augustus