Singing Beyonce songs once helped Dwight Howard at the free-throw line

Dwight equates singing Beyonce to him making free throws

Newly-acquired Atlanta Hawks center Dwight Howard, notoriously a bad free-throw shooter, converted a career-low 48.9 percent of his shots from the line last season. Howard's poor free-throw shooting makes him the target for intentional fouls and is one of the biggest detriment of his game.

But Howard isn't dismal at the line due to lack of trying. He religiously practices free throws and according to ESPN's Tom Haberstroh, Howard has even tried attacking the problem from a psychological standpoint by hiring a sports psychologist in the past, though that didn't make a noticeable improvement in his rate from the charity stripe.

However, there was one tactic that did work for Howard though -- signing Beyonce.

More from Haberstroh:

He has also tried singing songs in his head to keep his mind off the task.

"I used to sing Beyoncé songs, that was my thing," Howard said. "I told her about it when I saw her. I said, 'When I sing your song, I make my free throws.' She seemed to like that."

Howard has never been shy about this tactic. In a 2009 interview on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, Howard actually demonstratively sang Beyonce's hit "Single Ladies" and on his official YouTube channel, there is a video of him enthusiastically grooving to the same song:

Howard also has said in the past that compared to other artists, Beyonce's songs are the ones that actually help him make his free throws.

From the the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen in 2013:

"I shot like I was Mark Price," Howard said. "I had a slower song tonight in my head. Last night I had a fast song and I was going too fast. Tonight I had a couple slow jams playing in my head and I did pretty good. so I'm going to keep it up."

...

"The playlist was some Tank, some Tyrese and some Usher and some Beyonce," Howard said. "And on the Beyonces I hit all net so I might have to keep singing Beyonce."

It is kind of strange that Howard went away from singing Beyonce, because at least according to him, it actually worked. Why change something that was working? If ain't broke, don't fix it, Dwight!

Perhaps Howard will go back to his singing ways in Atlanta, where he'll be playing in front of his hometown fans could make him more comfortable from the line.