Should the “Hack-a-Shaq” technique be banned? Shaq himself doesn’t think so, but from what NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said, it sounds like a rule to combat the strategy may be coming soon. The latest to weigh in? Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. From Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News:
[Cuban] firmly believes Silver’s recent comments that the intentional foul rule needs to be addressed would be “wrong in every shape and form.”Cuban went so far as to say that trying to eliminate the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy would be about the same as eliminating overtime and having tie games decided by free throws or 3-pointers.
And if the premise is to speed up the game, that’s wrong, too, he said.“To get rid of Hack-a-Shaq is wrong, dead wrong, absolutely 100 percent wrong,” Cuban said. “There are a thousand ways to speed up the game. The one way that won’t do it any better is rewarding somebody for not being able to shoot a free throw like a 10-year-old.
“While Adam is right on a lot of things, if that’s his new position, he’s wrong. And anybody who thinks it’s about saving time is wrong. Not maybe wrong, not could be wrong, not possibly wrong, not like smart minds can take different viewpoints.
Cuban had previously said that he doesn’t mind the technique, but this time he took a much firmer stance. Cuban is absolutely against a rule change.
