NBA GMs have no real interest in changing hack-a-Shaq rule

NBA GMs were in Chicago for their annual meeting Wednesday and they do not have any real interest in changing the current “Hack-a-Shaq” rule.

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Known as the “Hack-a-Shaq” rule, it’s currently only applicable in the NBA in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime. In the rule, all away-from-the-ball fouls are punished with one free throw by any player and possession. This is to counteract the strategy of teams intentionally fouling the weakest free throw shooter and obviously came into popular terminology due to Shaq, who was a notoriously bad free throw shooter. There has been some push by league officials and executives to make the rule a full-time thing, like it currently is in the D-league.

However, at the GM meetings in Chicago, there was no majority agreement on changing the rule as it stands now, according to CBS Sports. An unnamed executive attending the meeting said that there just isn’t enough support to change the rule, adding that it was a situation of perception being bigger than reality. I.e. that the perception of teams intentionally fouling poor free throw shooters as a legitimate strategy is stronger than the reality, which is that it probably doesn’t, in most cases, give any team that much more of an edge.

Further, free throws are obviously part of the game and every player has a weakness, so if bad free throw shooting is any particular player’s weakness, then teams have the right to exploit it. League officials presented data that showed that showed the reality of intentional fouling to be largely isolated. In fact, 76 percent of the Hack-a-Shaq fouls this season have been on just five players. Those players are: DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Joey Dorsey and Andre Drummond. Jordan, who is the center for the Clippers, has been experiencing high levels of Hack-a-Shaq through the first two rounds of the playoffs and has been the target of half of all the intentional fouling this season.

So far there hasn’t been any kind of vote on the situation and it’s considered just in an investigation phase at this point. The competition committee will meet in July and they have the authority to recommend to the Board of Governors that the rule be changed.

Doc Rivers, the Clippers coach, says he thinks the rule will be changed next season, and he happens to be an influential member of the competition committee. Of course, you can also see where his bias is coming from.

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