I'm very good at drawing fouls.
If you hit me, I'm gonna try to shoot the ball and get two free throws.
Free throws - it's free money. I've got to make that count.
When it comes to basketball you always want to put the ball in the hole. You want to get as consistent and get that muscle memory right and be consistent.
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.
Everybody knows the struggles I went through coming into my career with the free throws and how much work I put into it, how many people made fun of me for not being able to stay in games, this and that.
I think free throws are harder because you have more time to think about it, and every eye is on you. When it's a trey, you catch and shoot.
My thought has always been completion. Maybe you have to rebound better, shoot better, hit free throws, handle the ball, defend better. You have to do all those things in the course of a game.
I'm not paying attention to Kevin Durant. I don't have any recollection of watching him play. I can't remember how he shoots free throws.
The fundamentals of your business are like free throws: emphasize and practice them to perfection.
Field-goal percentage is very important.
Getting on fast-breaks, you don't do that when you let a team shoot 20 free throws in one quarter.
The main thing is being consistent, being efficient and getting good looks, moving the ball when you can and knocking down my free throws.
Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God's way to say nobody's perfect.
I'm a pretty good free-throw shooter, so getting fouled is a good thing.
At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.
In the NBA, there is a guy guarding you, and you really have to try shooting over him.
In every game, there's three teams out there. There's the two basketball teams and the team of officials. If the two teams are evenly matched, it can come down to number of possessions. If one out-of-bounds call goes the wrong way, that can be the difference.
You may score 50 points and grab 40 rebounds and have 30 assists, but if I don't make the free throws at the end of the game, and we lose, does that make you not a champion?
If they're going to foul me, I'm going to step to the line and make some free throws.
My fouls used to be ticky-tacky, but I learned real fast to make them count.
We don't want to give up free throws. Those are mistakes.
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.
I need to focus on getting to the free-throw line and knocking them down in practice and getting them in the game.
When I think about it, it's kind of weird, but I do take shots without looking at the rim sometimes.
