Phoenix Suns forward Michael Beasley has converted over 75% of the free throws he has taken in his nearly five-year career, so when he misses more than one or two in a game you can understand why he might be frustrated. During his team’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, Beasley went 3-for-6 from the charity stripe. He was left searching for answers.
After missing a couple of free throws pretty badly, Beasley walked toward the rim and stared at it while shaking his head. He later explained himself.
“I had to scare the gremlins away,” he said when asked about staring down the rim, via NBA.com’s Jonathan Dalton. “Those gremlins are always messing with me.”
Has somebody been puffing the magic dragon again? As Pro Basketball Talk pointed out, this is not the first time Beasley has had trouble with these so-called gremlins. In fact, he blamed them for some minor free throw struggles back in 2010.
“That’s a college job,” Beasley told the Star-Tribune at the time, via A Wolf Among Wolves. “Luis Colon was my college center. He’s a big Spanish guy and when big Spanish guys get mad, they start speaking Spanish real fast. Every time he missed, he’d look at the rim and curse the rim out. So every time I miss, I’m trying to get the gremlin off the top of the rim.”
Considering Beasley is playing well at the moment, his coaching staff probably won’t question it. Last month, Beasley told reporters he is willing to sit in a trash can if it helps the Suns win. He has been pretty useless throughout most of the season, but he scored 20 points in a win over the Chicago Bulls over the weekend and 14 in the loss to Oklahoma City on Monday. If battling the gremlins is helping him contribute, so be it.
