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LeBron James shouldn't be shooting this free throw.

It's Dec. 31 in Charlotte, with the Cavs up 114-104, and James is walking toward the charity stripe to shoot the technical. Based on pure math, this is a bad call. The four-time MVP is in the middle of the worst free throw shooting season of his career, converting just 67.9 percent. There are better options available to the Cavs -- like, for example, four-time All-Star Kevin Love, a career 82 percent free throw shooter.

But this is alpha dog territory, and James has flexed his superstar status in moments like this before. Consider the 2010-11 Heat, which many consider the most alpha dog team ever. That season James, a career 74 percent free throw shooter at the time, shot 15 T's, while Dwyane Wade (77 percent) took one and Chris Bosh (80 percent) took zero. James made just 10 of the 15.

Hornets fans should be delighted to see James at the line. When he shoots technical free throws, his accuracy gets markedly worse. In fact, among the 104 shooters since 1996 with at least 100 technical attempts to their name, James ranks as the worst, converting just 67 percent of his 248 tries, per NylonCalculus.com tracking.

Even still, Love does what so many of James' teammates have done before: He steps aside and lets James take a crack at it. The referee passes LeBron the ball, and he begins his elaborate routine. He places the ball on his left hip and blows into his right fist as if to reignite a dimming ember. Then he lines up his toes on the line, dribbles three times, spins the ball in his left hand, steps backward with his left foot, rocks back, rocks forward, plants his left foot back on the line. He bends his knees. He looks up at the rim. He shoots.

The shot falls short, bouncing off the front rim with a thud, the ball plopping right in front of James. He slaps it away while the Charlotte crowd collectively cheers and laughs at him. Few things electrify a crowd like an opposing star's missed technical free throw.

James seems oddly rattled at the line this night. Earlier, in the first quarter, he had actually tripped in the middle of his free throw routine during that same unorthodox step-back, planting his foot too early and knocking himself off balance.

Which helps to explain why James, in this moment, is visibly frustrated. This is his seventh technical free throw of the season, almost halfway to his career average of 18 per season -- and this one apparently cuts deep. No one knows it at the time, but with 50 games remaining, it will mark the last technical free throw that James will take in the 2016-17 season.

James, like never before, has given up.