The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

Um. Ouch.

For years I've watched Ben Wallace shoot free throws the same way I watch The Exorcist. With my hands over my face, praying that I won't need to sleep with the lights on for the next four or five days. (Cue Linda Blair, "What an excellent day for an exorcism.") This year he shot just 41% from the line. Those kind of numbers make Shaq look Chauncey Billups. I've always figured it was a mental thing, and I'm sure some of it still is, but this, from Mitch Albom's Detroit Free Press column, I did not know:

Don't try this at home. Ben Wallace takes his left wrist in his right hand and squeezes. The wrist shifts, making a soft cracking noise that sends a shiver down an observer's spine.

And that's his good hand.

"That's what happens when I'm shooting free throws," he says, flopping the right hand now -- the one that has been injured for years. "I can shoot 10 straight good ones. On the 11th, it just slips out. I don't know when it's gonna happen."

"And you have to fix it," I ask, "right there on the free-throw line?"

"Yeah."

"You just pop it back in?"

"I just pop it back in."

He shrugs, the way a mechanic shrugs if he needs a new wrench.

I had no freak'n clue about that whatsoever. I don't know if that can fully account for a 40% FT percentage, but it sure might explain why it's under 50%. Anyway, it's actually a pretty good column from beginning to end, despite Albom's penchant for adding melodrama to everything he writes and it's a must read for Pistons fans.