She is now playing in her 21st season in the WNBA, and shot .911 from the free throw line one season.
Some of the women in the WNBA are exceptionally good at free throws. Elena Della Donne, for example, has an unreal lifetime free throw percentage of .937 after ten years in the league. (Among the men, even dead-eye Steph Curry is “only” at .909.)
Becky Hammon shot .897 over 16 years, including a perfect 1.000 in her final season. (The male record in .981 – only three misses in 154 attempts. Oddly enough, that guy dropped below .800 the following year.)
Another woman, Kayla McBride, has been over .900 in five of the last six seasons, including the current one – and the other season was .897! (Curry has actually bested this one. He’s topped .900 in eight of the past nine seasons, and his off season was .898.)
I kind of wake up for the playoffs, but not to a huge extent, since baseball is going on simultaneously.
And the local team, the former Bullets, has pretty much alternated between mediocrity and downright stink-o-ness since the Unseld-Hayes-Dandridge teams of the late 70s petered out. I actually had a half-season ticket in ’76.
If the NBA ever adds designated free throw shooters then these ladies can start making some real money. If it saves us from having to watch players like Shaq shoot free throws then it may be worth considering.
I don’t know what it would take to get me more interested in the NBA again; women shooting free throws might. I thought the 3-pointers would make things more interesting…it did for awhile but now it’s nearly as boring as the old pick and roll.