Poll: Hack-a-Shaq fine or needs to go?

[Hendrix]

keep it obviously. If you suck that bad at FT's it's your own fault and you should be punished for it.

[PowerSteele]

It's stupid. Why would you attack a player who does NOT have the ball in his hands? It's unsportsmanlike and needs to go.

[narmerguy]

We can't eliminate rules based simply on the amount of entertainment value they provide. Hack-a-shaq is rarely used and only effective when an opposing player sucks really bad at free throws. Tough beans, put a different player on the court and the hacking will stop. Or, you could, you know, not suck at free throws as a professional NBA player.

[RutgersBJJ]

I don't know why the opposing team should be prevented from using a sound strategy because of the inabilities of a player. Should you prevent a team from using a defensive **** against a pure pull hitting lefty in baseball? Prevent teams from stacking the box against a team that can't throw the football?

Make your free throws. If a player's only weakness is his free throw shooting and he is an unstoppable scoring machine like Shaq was, why punish the opposition for defending him the most efficient way possible? Why stop there?

Should defenders be forced to defend Wade beyond the 3 point line even though he can't hit 3's? Should defenders not be able to force Manu right since he is so left-hand dominant?

You should be able to do it in the final 2 minutes too. You just shouldn't be able to do it until the ball crosses half-court otherwise it saves too much time on the clock for the team doing the fouling.

[Jonatton Yeah]

When a team goes over the limit the other team should have a choice of f/t or the ball. The Hack strategy can reward a team for their own fouling shortcomings.

[Dupp]

This is pretty dumb. Whats next? Make it illegal to clog the lane and force lebron to take jump shots? If you can't execute a simple skill in basketball tough ****, they get payed enough they should hit their free throws.

[Goldtop]

Its only a matter of time before we see an instance in a game where both coach's do it to each other consecutively, and the game just turns into an hour long standstill of non-stop fouling and free throw shooting back and forth.

At that point, the NBA will intervene and outlaw it completely. Its very easy to eliminate it now if they wanted. Just make the rules that apply in the final 2 min apply to the whole game.

And the above mentioned scenario is very possible. For example, what if after Popovich tells his player to foul Bogut, Mark Jackson immediately tells his player to foul Splitter. And then SA fouls Bogut again, and GS fouls Splitter, etc, etc

You could literally have like 20 FTs shot spanning 30 min real time, with less than 1 min taken off the game clock, and games could end up going on for 3-4 hours. It would turn the NBA into a laughing stock and Stern would get rid of it immediately.

imo, that's what it will probably take for the league to get rid of it, and tbh I'm surprised it hasn't happened before already.

[Wooderson]

It's a strategy. Everyone should practice to make their free throws.
If you want to remove hack-a-shaq, you might as well remove all strategies such as zone defense because everyone should d up their opponents by themselves..

It's not a strategy. It's a gimmick. Any foul that doesn't occur within the realgm of basketball play itself should be considered a flagrant or technical. And if you don't want to make it a technical or flagrant, at least give the team the option to inbound the ball instead of shoot FTs. Same thing goes for fouling when up 3 with the game on the line.

[Winsome Gerbil]

Have always felt Hack-a-Shaq was a perversion of the very meaning of the rules. A "foul" by its very definition means that the defensive team has broken the rules. Has cheated. And so are punished for it. Hack a Shaq turns that entire paradigm on its head, and tries to use fouls against the team being fouled. That isn't right. Should never be possible.

My simple solution to it would just be this: give the fouled team a choice to either take the FTs or take the ball out on the side. I would even go so far as to say give the fouled team the choice to either accept the foul or not even take it, but that would be hard to work. Either way, there is no way a defensive foul should be able to be sued to punish an offensive team. Poor FT shooters are already penalized by making it hazardous to go to them in the post or whatever late in games. Trying to chase them from the court even if the offensive team appropriately keeps them out of the play is just a perversion of the whole point of having fouls in the first place.

[GSP]

Why would u reward players who cant hit their free throws? Thats just dumb learn to shoot and master the fundamentals of the game or dont complain period

[Higga]

I have no issue with Hack a Shaq. It's part of basketball strategy. You can't just get rid of it, not even sure how you'd amend it. It's like intentionally walking someone in baseball. You do what you gotta do within the framework of the rules to win.

Have always felt Hack-a-Shaq was a perversion of the very meaning of the rules. A "foul" by its very definition means that the defensive team has broken the rules. Has cheated. And so are punished for it. Hack a Shaq turns that entire paradigm on its head, and tries to use fouls against the team being fouled. That isn't right. Should never be possible.

The team that's hack a Shaqing is still being punished: they are giving the other team an opportunity at two free undefended points. If the player they are fouling happens to suck at FTs then so be it. But changing Hack a Shaq would mean doubly punishing the fouling team.

[Nowitness]

You can't just kill something off because you don't like it. Guys need to hit their FTs, its just a strategy.

[Goldtop]

In the long run I think it hurts the team that does it more than the opponent. Because when it works and you get away with it, its just like getting away with cheating on a test at school... you keep doing it, it becomes a crutch, and eventually you stop studying altogether because you don't have to anymore.

But then you start to develop bad habits, and when the time comes that you can't use it, you don't know how to succeed without it and you fail.

Instead of relying on hacking, you're better off conditioning your team to play defense in those instances instead and become battle tested. So you are prepared to get those big stops on defense later in the playoffs when you can;t use hack-a-shaq. By taking the easy way out, you only deprive yourself the chance to test your defense and get better defensively.

[SacTownKings4Life]

Why the hell would you fine people for committing fouls? For this question to even be ASKED just goes to show how soft this league has gotten. Personal accountability is all but dead because we always seek to point fingers at others to minimize and justify our own shortcomings.

Hack-a-Shaq can EASILY be eliminated if the targeted players would simply LEARN HOW TO SHOOT A FREAKIN FREE THROW. I have no sympathy for man who refuses improve his job performance yet complains when the competition exploits him for being an obvious weak link. If you're a professional basketball player, there's no excuse for you NOT to know how to shoot at least a 70% free throw percentage. What exactly are you doing in practice, if not working on your game? The best shooters in NBA history REGULARLY put up hundreds of shots per session to refine their stroke. So again, there's no excuse. You're a professional. Find a way to get the job done.

[Dupp]

Hey we should fine players for blocking shots. It's unfair on the guy's trying to make a layup.

[RunOKC]

....Or learn to make free throws

Is it really that hard? Your getting paid millions to play and practice basketball.

[Blame Rasho]

Free throws are now a punishment for the offense...lol.

[Juicyjcant]

Hack a shaq should be legal at any time of the game.

You can see that it isn't some loophole or fraud move by realizing that hack a shaqing anyone shooting above 70% would be counterproductive.

If players are so bad at a legitimate facet of a game, it should be exploited just like anything else. To say that it slows down the game has nothing to do with whats right or whats not right, but your preference of entertainment.

It is not some unfair cheating tactic, its a legitimate strategy. If you dont want your team to get hack a blank find better free throw shooters, bench that player, or build a big enough lead to withstand it.

[DanTown8587]

I just want to change the rule to this: whichever player commits the foul is not allowed to exit the game at the dead ball. If a team wants to use some back of the roster guy to foul someone to make free throws, they should have to at least make that player play in the game.

[Dupp]

I just want to change the rule to this: whichever player commits the foul is not allowed to exit the game at the dead ball. If a team wants to use some back of the roster guy to foul someone to make free throws, they should have to at least make that player play in the game.

This is an intrusting idea. No subs of an intentional foul. Could hurt the team with the ball as well though.