Ex-Bucks Gadzuric, Ham are among the NBA’s worst ever free throw shooters

By JERRY TAPP

Ben Wallace was a four-time All-Star and was first team All-Defense in the NBA five times. He twice led the league in rebounding and was second on two more occasions.  

In his 16-year NBA career with five different franchises, he was known as a tenacious rebounder and defender. He was, however, a terrible free throw shooter… maybe the worst in league history.

Of all players who attempted 500 or more career free throws, Wallace had a career free throw percentage of .414, the worst among those players. He never made 50% (or higher) of his free throws in a season, and actually had six seasons where his free throw percentage was under .360.

Here’s a look at the 12 players who had career free throw percentages under .500 (minimum of 500 career free throws attempted).

Ben Wallace, 1997-2012, .414
Lou Amundson, 2007-16, .444
Chris Dudley, 1988-2003, .458
Andre Drummond, 2013-20, .461
DeAndre Jordan, 2009-20, .474
Eric Montross, 1995-2002, .478
Steven Hunter, 2002-10, .485
Greg Kite, 1984-95, .486
Ken Bannister, 1985-91, .492
Darvin Ham, 1997-2005, .494
Dan Gadzuric, 2003-12, .498
Adonal Foyle, 1998-2009, .499

If we drop the minimum attempts to 100 career free throw attempts, there are four players who had a worse career free throw percentage than Wallace. Kim Hughes (1977-81) had a career .333 percentage from the charity stripe, followed by Joey Dorsey (2009-15) .375, Lorenzo Wlliams (1993-2000) .377 and Jerome Lane (1989-93) .379.

Of all Bucks players who attempted 500 or more career free throws with the team, Dan Gadzuric is/was by far the worst free throw shooter. He had a career .504 percentage in free throws with the Bucks. He is followed by John Henson .572, Andrew Bogut, .574, Alton Lister, .575 and Ervin Johnson, .586.

Of Bucks players with a minimum of 100 free throw attempts with the team, Joel Przybilla tops the list as the worst free throw shooter with a .419 percentage.

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