A wise man once said that nobody’s goal should be to break all-time records while playing in the NBA Development League. While that would seemingly be the case the majority of the time -- it implies a player’s simply been “developing” a bit too long in the D-League -- Blake Ahearn broke the mold this past weekend.
Ahearn, a standout guard for the Reno Bighorns who’s previously spent time on NBA rosters with the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat, did what he does best on Saturday night when he hit his 99th consecutive free-throw this season. The veteran shooter bested his own previous D-League record as well as the big league’s record, held by former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Micheal Williams when he hit 97 straight shots from the charity stripe from March to November in 1993 before Ahearn topped it.
The above video certainly isn’t the most exciting thing ever posted on Youtube, but it should probably be stored securely in the archives considering nobody in history has done what Ahearn accomplished over the course of the past month.
“Breaking records is never something that you set out to do,” Ahearn told ProBasketballTalk, “But you’re fortunate when all your hard work pays off ... and, in this case, it did.”
Ahearn, currently leading the D-League in scoring with 24.6 points per game, isn’t exactly a stranger when it comes to breaking shooting records. The 27-year-old point guard holds the all-time college free-throw percentage record as well -- thanks to shooting 94.6 percent on 460 foul shot attempts while at Missouri State -- but he attributes his success his success to the practice he’s put in over the course of his basketball career.
“I make 102 free-throws per day during the off season,” Ahearn says, “But it’s different during the season just with travel and all that.”
Why 102 and not even 100? Legend has it that Ahearn treats the first 100 attempts as practice shots while he considers the final two as the ones that count, in the clutch. It’s paid off in game situations, too.
“I don’t remember as much from high school, but since college I’ve never missed more than two free-throws in a game,” Ahearn said. “I’ve missed twice in one game, I think, five or six times since the start of college up until right now.”
The most impressive part about Ahearn’s streak isn’t the OCD-like behavior when it comes to free-throws -- though the 102 shots theory does make sense -- but the fact that he was able to do it while averaging nearly 40 minutes per game for the Bighorns. Fatigue obviously isn’t a problem for Ahearn, however, as his 99 consecutive free-throws have come over the course of just 14 games.
It probably won’t be long -- or shouldn’t be, at least -- until Ahearn’s given another shot to prove that he belongs in the Association even though he certainly isn’t the purest point guard to ever call the D-League home. Free-throw shooting would seem to be one of the most translatable skills available, and considering his success everywhere in the past, it’d seem counter-intuitive to not have a player like Ahearn on the end of the bench available for late-game situations when big shots need to be knocked down.
Ahearn might never be able to steal away the Mr. Clutch moniker from Jerry West, but it seems safe to say he’s proven he’s the best in-game free-throw shooter basketball has to offer.
