Ade Dagunduro of the Nebraska Huskers shoots from the line.
An article on the front page of the New York Times this morning got my mind absolutely spinning. From the paper:
Since the mid-1960s, college men's players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was 68.8. It has dropped as low as 67.1 but never topped 70.
In the National Basketball Association, the average has been roughly 75 percent for more than 50 years. Players in college women's basketball and the W.N.B.A. reached similar plateaus — about equal to the men — and stuck there.
What in the world?!? The game has changed so much, players are so much bigger and stronger and have longer shorts and fancier sneakers and start playing when they can barely walk and still, in 50 years, free throw accuracy hasn't changed? Unbelievable.
And yet... There's something about it that seems so familiar, some analogy to daily life that I haven't quite struck on yet. So here's the challenge: What's the free throw a metaphor for? What's the thing that you do over and over and over again, with better equipment and resources, throughout your life, that you are always fine at but never improve on? What's the metaphor?
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