Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and ESPN analyst J.A. Adande got into a Twitter spat over the “hack-a-player” strategy.
The Houston Rockets are going after DeAndre Jordan with the “hack-a-player” theory. The goal of this method, which came around in response to Shaquille O’Neal, was to put a player who is a poor shooter from the free throw line at the…. well…. free throw line.
In the first half of Game 4 alone and DeAndre Jordan had shot over 20 free throws by himself.
That led to a lot of groaning and complaining about the strategy on Twitter and how boring it makes the game, or how it disrupts the rhythm.
For instance, J.A. Adande of ESPN.
This is ridiculous. Rockets played about 5 minutes of defense this game before fouling Jordan
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
And before you start with your support for this junk: http://t.co/s8LbyXQ24A
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
Can't even say the Rockets are setting basketball back 100 years, because 100 years ago fouled teams could choose the free throw shooter
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
For folks who love FTs, DeAndre Jordan has already matched his playoff high this seasonwith 7 made FTs in the 1Q. Riveting
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
Competition committee is expected to revisit the fouling gimmick next week. Hopefully this will sway them to change it.
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
Hey if this fouling thing catches on maybe baseball will make pitchers take every at bat for their teams. That would be great for the sport
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015
That is when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ented the conversation.
@mcuban If you're gonna sign off on this, might as well go back to jump balls after every basket. Game flow is wrecked
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 11, 2015