Trae Young is one of the NBA’s best free throw shooters. The Atlanta Hawks guard has made 87.2 percent of his free throws for his career, which is a top-10 active mark in the league. Young has been particularly good at the charity stripe lately: he was on a streak of 47 consecutive made free throws as he stepped to the line to ice the win over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night with under one second left.
Trae Young broke his free throw streak with his best shot yet, and it blew his teammate’s mind
Trae Young’s perfect missed free throw blew his teammate’s mind to seal Hawks win
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Young sank the first free throw to give Atlanta a two-point lead. With 0.5 seconds remaining on the clock, he knew it wasn’t beneficial to make the second one, which would allow Indiana to take a timeout, advance the ball to halfcourt, and try to get off a shot at the buzzer to tie the game.
For his second free throw, Young put up a comically high-arcing shot that just barely grazed the rim. The buzzer sounded, and the Hawks won. As he walked off the floor, Young was greeted by teammate Georges Niang, who provided a hilarious reaction to Young’s miss. Watch the shot and reaction here:
Niang had to know why Young missed the free throw, right? His reaction may have been because Young told him that shot ended his streak of 47 consecutive makes. Either way, it’s a hilarious look at the relationship between the two new teammates after Niang came to Atlanta in a trade deadline deal.
Young may have ended his own free throw streak, but the shot that broke it was the most perfectly placed of them all. This is your reminder that NBA stars are comically good at their jobs.
The NBA should allow Young to keep his free throw streak going. He did exactly what he wanted with his second freebie, and the Hawks won because of it.
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