Wilt Chamberlain (51.1% Career FT, 5.8-11.4 FTA per game, 6,057-11,862 career FT)

“The Stilt” holds a lot of records in NBA history that will probably never be broken, such as being the only center in history to lead the league in assists, averaging over 50 points for a season and scoring 100 points in a single game.

However, 11,862 times in his NBA career he was at the free throw line and 5,805 times he came away unsuccessful. For those doing the math, that’s a staggering 5.55 points per game that was left on the board for him and his teams.

Imagine if he averaged closer to 35 points per game for his career as opposed to the 30.1 he ended his career with.

That season he averaged over 50 points he got to the free throw line over 17 times per game, yet made only 10 of his attempts. If he shoots close to a 70 percent mark for his career, then he averages nearly 2.15 points per game more. 

While he wasn’t statistically the worst, the scope of how consistently bad he was from the line and the scope of how many points were left off makes him the worst in my opinion by comparison.

How many times in those NBA Finals where his team came up short to Bill Russell and the Celtics would those few points from the FT line have been a game changer and tilted the odds in his favor?

We can’t say for sure, but for as dominant as he was as a player, it was only good enough to get him two titles compared to Russell’s 11. 

He admitted that he was a head case when it came to free throws and the rules of the game were even changed by the game of tag with opponents intentionally fouling him to exhaustion throughout the game. 

Watching old film of him shoot free throws (and unfortunately this is really all we have to go off of outside stats), it appears that he stands a couple feet behind the actual free throw line, shoots from one hand without his secondary to help balance, doesn’t extend his arm, doesn’t follow through, doesn’t square up and even though it's an All-Star game, doesn’t appear to focus, let alone care.

We can’t say that this is how Chamberlain shot throughout his career and he did have some impressive free throw shooting performances and clutch makes, but the scope of how many points left off the board in his career is overwhelming.