The late Kobe Bryant was considered by many to be one of the greatest NBA players and a Los Angeles Lakers franchise cornerstone. As we all know, Bryant played for 20 seasons in the NBA with the Lakers and managed to win 5 NBA championships in that timeframe.
In fact, it would interest fans to know that Bryant was the first guard in NBA history to play a full 20 seasons in the league. Since Kobe loved and worked his game, it was possible for him to remain competitive for a longer period of time.
That said, NBA fans might be interested in finding out how well the Black Mamba did at the free throw line and what his shooting percentage was over his career. Let us take a deeper look at his statistics and find out how many free throws Kobe made.
Kobe Bryant has made 8378 free throws throughout his NBA career
Although Bryant isn’t always included in the discussion for the Greatest Of All Time, there is no denying that he was obsessed with basketball and did everything in his ability to further develop his game every year. Due to the arsenal of moves, he obtained over the years, guarding him in a 1v1 setting was almost next to impossible.
As a result, other players had no choice but to foul him in order to stop him from getting easy buckets. Over his 20-year career in the NBA, Bryant made 8378 free throws and missed 1633 of them. NBA fans will be aware that even professional athletes can succumb to the pressure of a late-game free throw.
We have seen NBA greats miss and Kobe was no exception. However, what made him special was his drive and hunger to get better with every year that passed in his career, if not every day. Hence, Bryant left the NBA after having made 83.7% of his free throw attempts.
Considering that the Black Mamba was listed at 6’6, his high free throw percentage is quite commendable. In fact, Bryant was a tick better than Michael Jordan, who made 83.5% of his free throws. Additionally, he is significantly better than LeBron James, who has only made 73.5% in his 20-year career.
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All of this simply speaks to the work that Bryant has put into the game. Despite having technically played in fewer games than King James, he is still a spot above LeBron when it comes to NBA free throws made leader although he has attempted far fewer free throws when compared to James at 10011 to 10959.