Throwing an air ball from a free-throw is understandable for a child taking their first steps into basketball. But a professional NBA player? That’s got to be embarrassing.
That’s what happened to Toronto Raptors’ Jamaal Magloire on Friday night as he was given the chance to reduce the Indiana Pacers’ lead to the minimum with only 15 seconds on the clock.
Instead, he threw an air ball to mass derision from the crowd and to the absolute bafflement of his coach Dwane Casey, whose face is a real picture immediately afterwards.
Magloire went on to miss the second free throw attempt and the Raptors lost 95-90, but far worse than the pain of defeat was the shame of the horrendous effort and Magloire admitted as much afterwards.
“I think that I’ve been playing this game long enough that I let the team down and I can be accountable as a man and say that I could have did a better job at the free-throw line and as a result we didn’t win the game,” he said, putting it rather mildly.
It’s the equivalent of the two-yard tap-in in soccer, the missed 14-yard free straight in front of the posts in Gaelic Football – shocking, shocking stuff.
