Art Of The Free Throw With Corey Maggette

December 11, 20055:09 PM PST

Corey Maggette, Los Angeles Clippers

The Shot:

Video

The Free Throw:
During in his rookie campaign in 1999, Corey Maggette connected on a respectable 75.1% of his free throw attempts as a high-flying swingman with the Orlando Magic. Not a bad mark by any means, but the ex-Duke Blue Devil had his sights set higher. "[After my rookie year], I put in a lot of hard work in the offseason, tuning up and changing stuff around," he says. "My shooting coach helped me out as well." And what was his main focus? "My technique," Maggette explains. "Having the right technique is always a big part of it. Your technique is really what makes you a good shooter."

The result has been a steady rise in Corey's free throw accuracy for each of his seven seasons and now he is a career 82% free throw shooter. Not concidentially, his scoring average has also seen a jump---from 8.4 ppg in '99 to 22.2 ppg last season---as he has made a living at the foul line.
The Ritual:Now one of the NBA's best from the charity stripe, rhythm is the name of the game for Maggette. "The main thing that I do now is to just try to get into a rhythm," he says. "Before every game, I always make 20 in a row and when I come in before shootaround, I make it a habit to hit 10 in a row. Then, right as the game is about to start, I make two more in the final minute of warmups."

"Your form is always important," Corey adds. "So I've just continued to work on mine."