Free throw rate remains the same

The general expectation in sports is that performance improves over time. Future athletes will surely be faster, throw farther, jump higher. But for some reason, as other records are broken, free-throw shooting has remained the same over the past 50 years.

The consistency of free-throw percentages stands out when contrasted with field-goal shooting over all. In men's college basketball, field-goal percentage was below 40 percent until 1960, then climbed steadily to 48.1 in 1984, still the highest on record. The long-range 3-point shot was introduced in 1986, and the overall shooting percentage has settled in at about 44 percent.