Joakim Noah Knew He Horribly Airballed This Free Throw The Second The Ball Left His Hand

Joakim Noah has always had a really funky release on his jump shots and free throws. He doesn’t shoot the basketball as much as he launches it from his chest and hopes for the best. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. It is much funnier when his shot does not work.

Noah lined up for a free throw during the Knicks’ game against Indiana. From the second the shot left his hand, he knew that he missed.

He ended up calling it, because my goodness, this miss was terrible. From his perspective, Noah came up short and missed to the left. If the shot had enough power behind it, it was going to end up missing the rim and hitting the left side of the backboard. If it went straight, it was an airball.

Noah came into Monday’s game knocking down just a hair under 43 percent of his free throws on the year. It’s kind of crazy how his free throw percentage has just fallen off a cliff over the last few years – from 2007-14, Noah knocked down just under 73 percent of his attempts from the stripe – but when you shoot like this, anything is possible. Especially misses. You’re going to miss a lot of free throws when you shot put a basketball from your torso.