Many consider the “Hack-a-Shaq” technique –intentionally fouling the opposing team’s poor free throw shooters– to be detrimental to the sport of basketball. The reasoning is obvious: It slows down the game. Shaquille O’Neal, the namesake of the strategy, acknowledges that it slows down the game, but does not think that “Hack-a-Shaq” should be banned. From Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:
In the late 1990s, teams began intentionally fouling Shaquille O’Neal, who was a poor free throw shooter throughout his career. O’Neal is not as sympathetic to poor free throw shooters as one would imagine.
“For me it was, you can’t stop him, he’s shooting 70 percent from the field, he makes it through double teams and triple teams, but he’s shooting 50 from the free throw line,” said O’Neal.
“I may miss four or five in a row, but I never missed them all. I took it as a sign of respect, but a lot of [teams] use it as strategy. I always say as a coach, if you have to use strategy to win instead of having your guys go out and just flat-out beat you, you’re never going to win anyway.”
O’Neal said what became known as “Hack-a-Shaq” didn’t work when it counted.
“Portland tried it in a Game 6 and Game 7 and I nailed them,” he said. “San Antonio tried it, I nailed them. Dallas even tried it when I was with Miami, I nailed them.
“I don’t think you should change the rule. I think it slows the game down, but a lot of times it slows the other team down, too.
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“Of course, it’s slow and boring, but I don’t think they should change it. Because with the rule changes they have now, I would have averaged 60. I would have.”
Why was O’Neal a poor free throw shooter?
“Sometimes I concentrated too hard,” said O’Neal, who finished his career as a 52.7 percent free throw shooter, missing 5,317 free throws. “As a player, you have to get through it. I fought through it, I beat it, won titles with it.
“It didn’t work on me, but I’m not down with changing the rules. Don’t change the rules to make the game soft. I don’t want to play like that.”
Many will disagree with Shaq, but his opinion carries a lot of weight in this topic. It does sound like the NBA is leaning towards changing the rule, though.
