TL;DR – NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, wishes to explore the idea of creating rules to discourage the use of the strategy known as “Hack-A-Shaq.” Kobe Bryant disagrees, stating that it would set a bad example for the NBA and aspiring basketball players.
I’m with Kobe on this one. In short, Hack-A-Shaq is a basketball strategy in which teams deliberately foul the worst free throw shooter(s) on the opposing team, repeatedly, to send them to the free throw line where they ostensibly will miss both or make just one out of two free throws resulting in 0 or 1 points on the possession, instead of 2, 3 or 4. It was named after Shaquille O’Neal, a notoriously poor free throw shooter, who endured countless intentional fouls, to send him to the line, to hinder his team’s offensive output. And the strategy has only grown and continued since the reveal of the name and tactic, as free throw shooting has continued to devolve into a dying art, and percentages are plummeting throughout the entire league.
Sometimes, it’s used when a team is ahead, and they want to preserve their lead, so they deliberately start Hacking-a-Shaq so that the opponents’ ability to chip away at the lead is suppressed, and they are unable to build any substantial momentum. More often, it’s used when a team is behind, and they use Hack-a-Shaq to stop the clock, minimize the opponent’s ability to stretch the lead, and to try and maximize the number of possessions they can get.
It punishes teams employing weak free throw shooters, and makes them make line up decisions, and/or burn precious timeouts late in games to have to make repeated adjustments to pull the weak shooters so they can’t be exploited, and put them back in when they’re on defense.
Hack-A-Shaq has received a lot of criticism throughout the years, because it most certainly succeeds, at slowing down games to a crawl, as with each foul, the clock is stopped, and the tedious act of shooting free throws, making player substitutions and television timeouts come into effect. It’s perceived as a cheap tactic that sucks the fun out of a game, which is not necessarily an incorrect assessment.
The thing is, Hack-A-Shaq is a thing, because it is not an illegal tactic, and strategically, it is the right thing to do sometimes. And as NBA players gradually become worse and worse at shooting free throws, it’s only going to grow with each passing season where another Shaq-like player is revealed and exposed as being a poor free throw shooter.
However, the NBA, citing that it’s still in the business of entertainment, has declared that they will explore some rule changes for the future, that would discourage the use of Hack-A-Shaq, citing that the tactic is sucking the fun out of games, slowing down the pace of games, and just ruining the NBA in general. They’re not wrong with the claims they’re making, but the fact of the matter is that by altering the game to discourage the use of Hack-A-Shaq is basically the equivalent of rewarding bad behavior.
Want to counter Hack-A-Shaq? Get better free throw shooters. I agree with Kobe Bryant that getting rid of the Hack-A-Shaq is absolutely setting a bad example for basketball. Removing Hack-A-Shaq is basically saying it’s okay for current players, and the players of tomorrow, to neglect one of the most fundamental and invaluable skills of the sport.
Earlier this season, there were games where two guys shot 34 and 36 free throws in respective games. They made 12 and 13 respectively. Do the math, and that’s 35% and 36% of their free throws. They both won these particular games, but do you think the fans were thrilled to see two dopes trotting up to the free throw line all night long, and dragging these blowouts out longer than they needed to be? Probably not.
Clearly, the logical thing to do is to condone poor free throw shooting, and change the rules around them, so that they can’t be exploited like this. Clearly.
Want to know why there was never Hack-A-Dream, or Hack-An-Admiral? Because both Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson were 70%+ free throw shooters. Intentionally sending them to the charity stripe would all but guarantee one point, and more often than not, result in two. And at that point, it’s strategically a better idea to let the play occur in the paint, and hope for a defensive stop.
I’d love to see like a Moneyball-like revolution in the NBA, where a team constructs a roster built on the ability to draw fouls and has a lineup full of average/above-average free throw shooters. Their games wouldn’t be pretty, and they would be somewhat of slogs, as they draw fouls and go to the line, but they sink free throw after free throw, and ultimately end up blowing out their opponents on a regular basis.
But that’ll never happen, because circus shots and highlight dunks are all that the NBA fanbase generally cares about.
You’re getting paid a lot of money to make a damn free throw, dude. I think it sets a bad precedent. I wouldn’t change it.
You’re god damn right, Kobe. Unfortunately, the NBA is greedy and cares more about money and entertainment than the general integrity of the sport, so that being said, Hack-A-Shaq might actually soon become a thing of the past. Unfortunately.
