The Worst Free-Throw Attempt Ever, Explained By The Woman Who Took It

On Monday, we brought you footage of what we described as the worst free-throw attempt of all time. The shot truly is a thing to behold, and we couldn't help but wonder (after watching it for the 20th time) how exactly a free throw could fall so far from the rim. This was a question that we needed to have answered.

So we called the shooter, Georgia College junior Shanteona Keys, and she was gracious enough to answer the one question that had been burning us up: What the hell happened?

"It actually happens to me a lot in practice," Keys told us. "It's just never happened in a game before, with cameras rolling." According to Keys, she always brings the ball very close to her face when taking a free throw, and sometimes she brings it so close that her pointer finger actually touches her nose. From this position she is usually able to shoot the ball without incident, but sometimes her finger gets caught on her nose. "On that shot, I just followed through too close to my face," she said. "And my fingernail got caught on my nose, so I couldn't follow through correctly on the shot."

So there you have it. The worst free throw ever was not created by a sneeze or a mental lapse, but by a simple mechanical error.

We'd also like to point out that Keys is a career 78.4 percent shooter from the line, is averaging 16 points per game this year, and is also an extremely good sport.