The Best Free Throw Shooter In History

nba best free throw shooters
The best NBA Free Throw Shooters

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:

RankPlayerFT
1.Karl Malone*9787
2.Moses Malone*8531
3.Kobe Bryant*8378
4.LeBron James7706
5.Oscar Robertson*7694
6.Michael Jordan*7327
7.Dirk Nowitzki7240
8.Jerry West*7160
9.Paul Pierce*6918
10.Adrian Dantley*6832
11.James Harden6807
12.Dolph Schayes*6712
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*6712
14.Allen Iverson*6375
15.Charles Barkley*6349
16.Carmelo Anthony6262
17.Reggie Miller*6237
18.Bob Pettit*6182
19.Kevin Durant6154
20.Wilt Chamberlain*6057
21.David Robinson*6035
22.Dominique Wilkins*6031
23.Shaquille O'Neal*5935
24.Tim Duncan*5896
25.Elgin Baylor*5763
26.Dwyane Wade5708
27.Hakeem Olajuwon*5423
28.Lenny Wilkens*5394
29.Patrick Ewing*5392
30.Russell Westbrook5389
31.John Havlicek*5369
32.Elvin Hayes*5356
33.Dwight Howard5301
34.Walt Bellamy*5113
35.Chet Walker*5079
36.Tom Chambers5066
37.Paul Arizin*5010
38.Magic Johnson*4960
39.DeMar DeRozan4896
40.Kevin Garnett*4887
41.Vince Carter4852
42.John Stockton*4788
43.Pau Gasol4755
44.Bailey Howell*4740
45.World B. Free4718
46.Clyde Drexler*4698
47.Tiny Archibald*4664
48.Reggie Theus4663
49.Jerry Stackhouse4649
50.Bob Cousy*4624
The top 50 NBA players all time ranked by how many free throws they have made.

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:

RankPlayerFTA
1.Karl Malone*13188
2.Wilt Chamberlain*11862
3.Shaquille O'Neal*11252
4.Moses Malone*11090
5.LeBron James10496
6.Kobe Bryant*10011
7.Dwight Howard9367
8.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*9304
9.Oscar Robertson*9185
10.Jerry West*8801
11.Michael Jordan*8772
12.Charles Barkley*8643
13.Paul Pierce*8578
14.Tim Duncan*8468
15.Adrian Dantley*8351
16.Dirk Nowitzki8239
17.David Robinson*8201
18.Allen Iverson*8168
19.Bob Pettit*8119
20.Walt Bellamy*8088
21.Elvin Hayes*7999
22.James Harden7927
23.Dolph Schayes*7904
24.Carmelo Anthony7697
25.Hakeem Olajuwon*7621
26.Dwyane Wade7463
27.Dominique Wilkins*7438
28.Elgin Baylor*7391
29.Patrick Ewing*7289
30.Reggie Miller*7026
31.Lenny Wilkens*6973
32.Kevin Durant6972
33.Russell Westbrook6859
34.John Havlicek*6589
35.Chet Walker*6384
36.Pau Gasol6311
37.Tom Chambers6274
38.World B. Free6264
39.Bailey Howell*6224
40.Kevin Garnett*6190
41.Paul Arizin*6189
42.Vince Carter6082
43.Buck Williams5979
44.Clyde Drexler*5962
45.DeMar DeRozan5869
46.Alonzo Mourning*5862
47.Magic Johnson*5850
48.Shawn Kemp5805
49.John Stockton*5796
50.John Drew5774
A list of the top 50 NBA players ranked by free throw attempts all time

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:

RankPlayerFT%
1.Stephen Curry.9074
2.Steve Nash*.9043
3.Mark Price.9039
4.Rick Barry*.8998
5.Peja Stojaković.8948
6.Chauncey Billups.8940
7.Ray Allen*.8939
8.Damian Lillard.8927
9.J.J. Redick.8918
10.Calvin Murphy*.8916
11.Scott Skiles.8891
12.Reggie Miller*.8877
13.Larry Bird*.8857
14.Bill Sharman*.8831
15.Kevin Durant.8827
16.Kyrie Irving.8810
17.Khris Middleton.8789
18.Dirk Nowitzki.8787
19.Jeff Hornacek.8770
20.Kyle Korver.8769
21.Danilo Gallinari.8767
22.Earl Boykins.8758
23.Ricky Pierce.8755
24.Terrell Brandon.8732
25.Isaiah Thomas.8718
26.Chris Paul.8718
27.Kiki Vandeweghe.8717
28.Darrell Armstrong.8714
29.Jeff Malone.8711
30.Mo Williams.8708
31.Kevin Martin.8704
32.Devin Booker.8700
33.Hersey Hawkins.8698
34.Mike Newlin.8695
35.Micheal Williams.8680
36.D.J. Augustin.8670
37.Trae Young.8659
38.Chris Mullin*.8655
39.Allan Houston.8634
40.Luke Ridnour.8623
41.John Long.8622
42.Bojan Bogdanović.8619
43.Jamal Crawford.8619
44.Sam Cassell.8608
45.Wally Szczerbiak.8599
46.James Harden.8587
47.Kawhi Leonard.8580
48.Dana Barros.8578
49.Fred Brown.8575
50.Ben Gordon.8567
A list of the top 50 NBA All Time Percentage Leaders

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 MillerKevin DurantJames 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.

PlayerMakesAttemptsPercentageGames PlayedFree Throws Attempts Per Game
Steph Curry3076339090.74%7974.3
Damian Lillard3917438889.27%7116.2
Reggie Miller6237702688.77%13895.1
Kevin Durant6154697288.27%9167.6
Dirk Nowitzki7240823987.87%15225.4
James Harden6807792785.87%9108.7
Our Final Candidates For Best Free Throw Shooters

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.