For some, spring means darty weather, baseball, or the start of golf season. As for me personally, I will be glued to my television until mid June soaking up every last bit of basketball I can until it resumes in October. If any of you are like me, you have been constantly tuned into the NBA Playoffs as of late. Unfortunately, this year, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs was bounced early in first round. The Spurs are considered to be one of the best-run organizations in sports, they do things with class, and respect for the game. The Spurs however, when down late in games tend to use a strategy called “Hack-A-Shaq." This tactic has been swirling with controversy as of late, with many coaches and owners calling for a ban of the method for good.
Hack-a-Shaq is a strategy in which one team continuously commits personal fouls against the opposing teams worst free throw shooter in an effort to slow down the game, and slow down the opposing teams scoring ability. For example, a team after scoring a basket may immediately foul the other teams worst free-throw shooter before they have a chance to run their offense. If the strategy is successful, the player will miss more free throws than he makes, in turn giving the other team the ball back without having to playing defense. Despite being its most well known victim, the “Hack-a-Shaq" strategy was not initially developed to target the 7'1" big man with a 53 percent career free throw percentage. The tactic was in fact developed by Hall-of-Famer Don Nelson in the 90's to target Bulls Forward Dennis Rodman. In recent history the strategy has been used on big men such as Ben Wallace, Dwight Howard, Deandre Jordan and Andre Drummond. There has been plenty of controversy surrounding the strategy, claiming it shows lack of defensive ability as well as disrespectful to game. According to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, at the conclusion of the season, a discussion regarding a rule change will take place that may ban the method for good. For the average basketball fan, it may seem a bit “Busch league", but if you are a real fan of the game, you understand its importance to the game of basketball
If the ban on the strategy were put in place, its purpose would essentially be to protect bad free throw shooters. Instead of banning the strategy, how about professional athletes focus on improving that part of their game. Instead of making rules to hide their weaknesses, why don't we force bad free-throw shooters to put in more effort? Take the MLB for example, if there is a left handed hitter up at bat who poses an unfavorable matchup, the coach may choose to bring in a left handed pitcher to face him (lefties usually have less success against lefties). It is a strategy in baseball to bring in a lefty to face a lefty to avoid unfavorable situations. As is it is a strategy in the NBA to foul the worst free throw shooter in late game situations. Would the MLB would ever think to make a rule banning lefty versus lefty match ups, probably not. So why would the NBA in turn make a rule prohibiting a strategy of the same stature? It is a strategy for a reason, sometimes it is successful, and sometimes it comes back to bite you. The thing that bugs me about the complaints is, as a professional athlete, if you want to play the game, you work to improve every area that sport involves because it is YOUR JOB. You can improve at anything in life if you spend enough time on it. There is no excuse for an NBA player to not be able to consistently make free throws, and if he can't he's simply not working hard enough.
