The 2014-15 NBA season has made for excellent theater with the return of LeBron to Cleveland, the emergence of the Splash Brothers in Golden State and the dismantling of a dynasty in South Beach.
And with the Miami Heat missing out on the postseason and the San Antonio Spurs being bounced in the first round, the NBA playoffs just got a whole lot more interesting. Eight teams have a legitimate chance at a title, and the talent distribution has never been greater.
However, while watching my hometown team the other night, I realized there is a fundamental flaw with playoff basketball and this series in particular.
The Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers tipped off the Western Conference semifinals with three of the best quarters of basketball this season. But what followed was a near atrocity.
For the last 12 minutes of game time, the Rockets and Clippers took turns using the NBA’s infamous “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy. For what seemed like an eternity, Dwight Howard and Deandre Jordan clanked free throw attempts off the back iron, and fans everywhere yawned.
For those that don’t know, the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy is when a team intentionally fouls an opposing player because he is so bad at free throws. The thought is that, statistically, the player is bound to miss his pair of free throws, and with no other scoring option, the opposing team will start to fall behind.
But the irony here is that Howard and Jordan are easily the two worst free throw shooters of their generation and, quite possibly, the worst ever.
Jordan (39.7) and Howard (52.8) are responsible for two of the lowest five free-throw percentages in the league this year, with Jordan himself leading in missed free throws.
I watched this glorified game of “H-O-R-S-E” for about half an hour with a group of roommates and good friends, and eventually, the conversation turned to whether or not the NBA should ban the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy for good.
Initially, I thought it was totally absurd. If you can’t do something as simple as make the easiest shot in basketball, then you don’t deserve to win; the NBA shouldn’t penalize a team for using a legal strategy.
But after watching that debacle on the court, I flipped sides and couldn’t see how the league could ever let this happen. The rest of the room agreed — one horrible game completely changed everyone’s opinion.
At the end of the day, basketball and all professional sports are for the fans. The NBA is first and foremost a business, so why would you continue to irritate and drive away fans?
I’m all for big men in the NBA learning how to shoot from the charity stripe, but not if it means watching an hour of non-action on my television.
The “Hack-a-Shaq” rule needs to be outlawed in the NBA, and at the very least in the postseason. Sure, it might be a slight competitive edge, but myself and millions of other basketball fans do not want to see another game with 54 free throw attempts.