It’s no secret that basketball players are more athletic nowadays, they are quicker, stronger, faster, and can jump higher than their counterparts 10 years ago.

However, despite all these changes in the game, there has been one facet of the game has remained relatively the same the last 50 years… The Free Throw Percentage.

The New York Times has a great article as to why players have improved in nearly all aspects of the game, save for free-throw percentage, which has remained around the same level since the 1960s.

Since the mid-1960s, college men’s players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was 68.8. It has dropped as low as 67.1 but never topped 70.

In the National Basketball Association, the average has been roughly 75 percent for more than 50 years. Players in college women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A. reached similar plateaus — about equal to the men — and stuck there.

There are measures in other sports that have shown similar consistency, like golf scores or batting averages, but none of them are as straightforward as lobbing a ball toward a basket.

Globalization of Free-Throws
The article also mentions that although international players do shoot better from the line, the difference isn’t as significant as some believe it to be, and probably not enough to effect the league average by much.

From the NYT: And although international players have helped the free-throw rate, foreign-born players in the N.B.A. this season are shooting about 1.4 percentage points higher than their American-born counterparts…

There are seven international players in the top-20 free-throw percentages in the NBA through March 4th, 2009.

Spaniard Jose Calderon holds the first spot and is on a record-pace to set the single season record for highest free throw percentage.  Calderon, whom missed the NBA record for consecutive free-throws made without a miss earlier in the seaons, has now hit 116 of 118 free throws this season and sits at 98.3%.  Calderon is  more than two percentage points ahead of  Calvin Murphy, whom holds the all-time single-season record with 95.8%.

Canadian Steve Nash is number three at 94.2%, behind Ray Allen (95.1%).  Dirk Nowitzki is sixth with 90.4%.  Manu Ginobili (#12, 88%), Rudy Fernandez (#15, 87.5%), Leandro Barbosa (#17, 87.3%), and Yao Ming (#18, 87.1%) are the other international players in the top 20.

Hm, I wonder what the overall free-throw percentages are for the Euroelague, the NBL, or the Chinese Basketball Association?

Links and Resources: For Free Throws, 50 years of Practice Is No Help (New York Times), Players have improved, but not at free-throws (Interbasket Forum), From 15 feet, Yao towers over Shaq, NBA Giants (Interbasket),  Consecutive Free Throw Records / FT streaks (Interbasket), Calderon closing in on NBA Free-Throw Record(s), Calvin Murphy’s Wrath (Interbasket)