On Deck: ‘Hack-a-Shaq’

On Deck: ‘Hack-a-Shaq’

By Brody Goucher Posted December 16, 2015

Guess what everyone? It’s finally basketball season again and teams are actually playing meaningful games unlike the summer league and preseason games which are torturous to watch.

While I am as excited as just about anyone for basketball season, I feel like the NBA didn’t address a huge issue that occurred during the offseason. Last year, the end of close games in the NBA was a joke because teams were just fouling the other team’s worst free-throw shooter in order to get an edge in the final moments of a game.

Watching players like Dwight Howard and Deandre Jordan constantly go up and shoot twenty free throws at the end of their games really took away from the late-game heroics that we are accustomed to seeing from exciting teams.

A lot of “experts” call the technique ‘Hack-a-Shaq because Shaquille O’Neal was one of the earlier examples of the technique being played out in games. Teams use it because it makes sense, if you can get a thirty to fifty percent free throw shooter on the line then they are most likely going to miss at least one of their free throws which gives the other team a huge advantage.

However, the technique has not been overwhelmingly successful, in the 2000 playoffs the Lakers and Shaq faced the Trail Blazers and the Pacers, both teams relentlessly used the ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ technique against Shaq but both teams ultimately failed and lost in the games that they used it in.
While the technique might not always be effective, teams still seem to be using ‘Hack-a-Shaq’, it is truly frustrating to watch these horrible free throw shooters end games when we could be watching players like James Harden, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant hit game winners.

What can be done to fix this issue? The NBA said they talked extensively over the offseason about ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ but apparently those “talks” yielded no solutions to the issue. For me it’s simple, in the last five minutes of the game only, give a team the option to either take the free throw or to keep possession of the ball. This would not only keep the pace of the game faster but it would also keep the games from going over three hours long.

If the NBA wants their best players making the most exciting plays at the end of games then they need to crack down on ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ because it is making the game less watchable for fans everywhere.