Immanuel Quickley’s Path to the Knicks Started at the Foul Line

But, free throws? Are teams actually picking players because of their free-throw shooting?

Not exactly. After all, Calvin Murphy shot over 90 percent from the line in six different seasons — leading the league twice — in his Hall of Fame N.B.A. career and could still probably make 9 of 10 today. But he is 72 and unlikely to make a comeback. Moreover, you don’t win the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Award, like Quickley did in 2020, just for shooting free throws well.

But good free throw shooting is often an indication of good overall shooting ability.

A 6-foot-3 guard from Havre de Grace, Md., Quickley was recruited to Kentucky as a point guard, and did some quarterbacking of the offense there. He also played off the ball and led the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game in 2019-20. An average of 4.8 of those points came from the foul line.

Quickley inherited his impeccable free-throw shooting from his mother, Nitrease Quickley, who played at Morgan State in Baltimore. Nitrease Hamilton, as she was known then, led Morgan State in free-throw shooting in both seasons she played for the Bears, shooting 72 percent in her junior season in 1995-96 and 80.3 percent in her senior year. When it came time for a technical foul, she was the one sent to the line.

A teacher for 22 years and now a vice principal in Harford County, Md., Nitrease said she coached her son’s recreation league team from the time he was 6 years old and said that he still has a trophy in their basement for leading the league in free-throw shooting. Nitrease said she had to talk her son out of going to the gym the night he was drafted.

“He said it was time to get to work,” she said in a telephone interview.

Nitrease taught Immanuel to pick out the “W” shape in the net under the rim as a target, to get his arm into the proper 90-degree angle, keep his feet balanced and follow through. She also stressed the need to have a piercing mental focus.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/sports/immanuel-quickleys-path-to-the-knicks-started-at-the-foul-line.html