BY HENRY ABBOTT

If you want to be an NBA player, you need skills. If you want to be an NBA star, one of those skills had better be drawing fouls. Scoring 30 points rarely occurs without the magic sauce of free throws. Referees can turn zero-point possessions into unguarded shots, good shots into and-ones, and off nights into 20-point games. And most importantly, the threat of a “superstar call” makes defenders yield useful chunks of airspace. Free throws are a force multiplier.
Just look at Damian Lillard. He made SportsCenter a hundred times for his logo shots. But in 2022-2023, at age 32, he shifted focus, drawing a free-throw attempt every 3.8 minutes, compared to every 5.8 minutes the season prior. In advanced statistics, Dillard became the best offensive player in the NBA and had the best scoring season of his career.
There are a ton of ways to draw fouls, but mostly the techniques fall into two categories: James Harden-style sorcery and physical collisions. Sometimes referred to as “initiating contact,” it’s akin to what NASCAR people call “trading paint.” They talk about it like it’s nothing, but sometimes the crashes are spectacular.
What players will never tell you, because of the gladiator code: those collisions are often painful and sometimes scary. I’ll never forget years ago when John Hollinger wrote a column saying that Derrick Rose would need to draw more fouls if he wanted to be a superstar. Rose acknowledged the story; took it kind of personally; did start drawing way more fouls; and became the MVP. The sad little coda to that story, though, is that Rose then tore his ACL on one of those drives into traffic.
Players are sensitive to both the benefits and risks of driving. And whether you play in the NBA or not, awareness of injury risk only grows with time. There’s a reason grandpa doesn’t join in the roughhousing.
What I have become newly aware of, in conversations for my book “BALLISTIC” (due out May 2025) is that a decent list of older players, having endured frightening injuries, have low-key started avoiding contact.
This reality peeks out from the numbers.
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