There’s one thing that all NBA fans universally sigh at whenever it happens. And that ‘happening’ is when a team intentionally fouls a player that is notoriously trash at taking free throws. Whenever I see them brick I just want to hit myself with said brick, it’s so depressing watching the giants of the game struggling with the most simple part of the game of basketball.
I have suggested a solution for it but now that I think about. They should be able to shoot free throws. Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest big men of all time, was terrible at free throw shooting, but he kept on trying to get better. He moved to the top of the key, changed his motion several times, he tried everything possible. Rick Barry did it underarm like Jackie Moon in Semi-Pro! Have you seen Dwight Howard change that flick motion that has no energy transfer whatsoever? Exactly.
An NBA Executive has said to Ken Berger of CBS Sports that the NBA GM’s just cannot get into agreement over the famed “Hack-A-Shaq”.
At the annual meeting of NBA general managers Wednesday in Chicago, there was no overwhelming consensus to change the rules to discourage teams from intentionally fouling poor free-throw shooters, league sources told CBSSports.com.
“There is not enough support to change it,” one executive in the meeting said. “It’s one of those perception is bigger than reality issues.”
League officials presented data on intentional fouling that strongly suggested the problem is an isolated one, despite all the attention it has gotten during the postseason. According to the data shared with GMs at the meeting, 76 percent of the intentional fouls this season — regular season and playoffs — have been committed against five players: DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Joey Dorsey and Andre Drummond.
Jordan, the Clippers’ center who has been hacked into the next century through the first two rounds of the playoffs, has accounted for about half of all intentional fouls this season, according to the league data.
That 76% is a eye-opening statistic. The fact that five players get over 3/4 of the intentional fouls, that’s tragic. And completely kills my potential rule. I have to go with the majority and just make the players get better at shooting free throws.
