Carmelo Anthony laughs at free throw blooper: ‘That was funny as hell’

Business decisions in the NBA lexicon are typically reserved for ducking out of the way of an onrushing player setting up for takeoff for a dunk in hopes of avoiding being posterized.

On Tuesday night, Carmelo Anthony made a different kind of business decision.

Faced with the choice of either shooting an airball on his free throw attempt or taking a violation, Anthony made a business decision to choose what he felt was the least embarrassing of the two and accept the violation.

But it still made for a great laugh.

Late in the third quarter in the Lakers’ loss to the Warriors, Anthony went to the line for a pair of free throws after being fouled on a baseline jumper. After calmly sinking the first, Anthony’s second attempt never left his hand, faking out the camera and the players at the line but not the officials, who correctly whistled him for a free throw violation.

“That was funny as hell,” Anthony joked after practice on Thursday. “It wasn’t really a pump fake. The ball hit my forehead so if I would have continued, it would have been an airball. So I was like ‘I’m not taking an airball’ so I’ll take a violation. I’d rather take a violation than an airball. It’s the little things that people don’t see within the game and that was one of them.”

Technically — as was pointed out to Anthony on Thursday — an airball would still be a free throw violation of a different kind. Anthony, though, still felt he made the right choice.

“It looks better than an airball,” Anthony said with a smile. “So I’ll take that.”

What’s certain is that it will absolutely be appearing on Shaqtin’ A Fool this season and will be on blooper reels for a long time for Anthony and the Los Angeles Lakers.

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