Joakim Noah hitting all twelve of his free throw attempts tonight has gotta be one of the most astounding statistical aberrations of the season. It’s not as aberrant as a theoretical situation in which Andre Drummond or DeAndre Jordan hits twelve of twelve, but the thing is, those are just theoretical situations. This is a real situation. In real life, in the dimension that you and I both agree constitutes the “real world”, Joakim Noah, the guy with the tornado free throw, hit twelve of twelve of his attempts in one game.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and dizzy right now, it’s okay to take a break and lie down before reading the rest of this description. I myself had to stop a few times to take deep breaths and collect myself.
Noah’s not the most dreadful free-throw shooter in the league right now, but he’s been widely (and rightfully) regarded as a bad one for the past few seasons. That gif of him airballing one hard to the left is a celebrated part of NBA gif tradition. Maybe this video of him hitting endless free throws will do something to undo the damage that the airball gif did to his legacy.
The are run-of-the-mill field goals present in this video, but they are secondary to the main attraction: the free throws. That sentence sounds extremely perverse and I hope I never have to type it again.