Over the past several seasons, OKC Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has unjustly built up a reputation for being the league's newest "free throw merchant" -- a player who relies heavily on their charity stripe activity to inflate their scoring numbers.
Time and time again, this kind of narrative has been proven factually incorrect, yet, for some reason, people can't seem to let it die, with new riders of the haterade train seemingly hopping on every day.
LeBron James appears to be the most recent person to have purchased a ticket to ride, as he recently stated on an episode of the Mind The Game Podcast that one of the primary game plans to stop the reigning MVP is to "keep him off the free throw line."
"He knows how to manipulate the game in a good way," James said. "He’s always looking for hands, arms, and elbows if you’re in his space. That’s just our game right now."
LeBron says game plan to stop Thunder star is keeping him off foul line
Now, to LeBron's credit, his mentioning of Gilgeous-Alexander's ability to "manipulate the game" when it comes to drawing fouls was meant to be a positive, praise-filled talking point. After all, he would also note that "you gotta respect it" and stressed just how hard it is to prevent him from earning a whistle
However, the mere mentioning of this area of play inherently peddles the same, tired out excuse that the Thunder guard's game is somehow more dependent on getting to the charity stripe than any other top-tier star in the association.
So let's look at the facts.
Heading into Tuesday's matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, Gilgeous-Alexander finds himself ranked fourth in free throw attempts (9.4) and just ninth in personal fouls drawn (6.4) per game.
Ironically, James' own teammate, Luka Doncic, leads the league in both of these aforementioned categories.
Now, fortunately for SGA, he manages to make his free throws at a rather high rate of 88.5 percent, cashing in on 8.3 a night (once again, lower than Doncic's league-leading 9.8).
Why is it such a crime that he's merely a good foul shooter?
What's most impressive of all when it comes to his truly elite scoring skills beyond the foul line is that even if you take away his 232 makes from the stripe, Gilgeous-Alexander would still rank 11 in the league in total points recorded (677).
To put this into perspective, roughly just 25.5 percent of the Thunder cornerstone's points are coming from the free throw line this year, significantly lower than, say, Deni Avdija's 31.2 percent, Doncic's 28.6 percent, and James Harden's 28.1 percent rates.
At this point, how on earth are people still trying to make a case that what Gilgeous-Alexander is doing when it comes to his free throw visits is anything out of the ordinary?
Truth be told, considering just how often he drives the lane (17.9 times per game) and gets whacked, one could argue he doesn't head to the line enough.
And yet, Thunder fans aren't complaining -- so why are you?!