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NBA: Adam Silver Right To Leave Hack-A-Player Alone

By Phil Watson

Apr 26, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) shoots a free throw against the San Antonio Spurs in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 26, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) shoots a free throw against the San Antonio Spurs in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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Before the NBA opened its 70th season Tuesday night, commissioner Adam Silver said that he is “conflicted” on the issue of the “hack-a-player” strategy that because a major theme in last year’s playoffs.

It’s a strategy that dates back decades, all the way back to the days of Wilt Chamberlain, who was the NBA’s most physically dominating player of his time but couldn’t make free throws.

Teams routinely would deliberately foul Chamberlain in crunch time, forcing him to make free throws or putting the onus on whoever was coaching him to make a decision whether to leave the star on the floor.

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In last year’s playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets targeted Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who recorded the third-worst season in NBA history in 2014-15, shooting 39.7 percent from the charity stripe.

Rockets center Dwight Howard, a career 57.3 percent shooter at the line, has also been a frequent target of the practice, as has Detroit Pistons big man Andre Drummond, who was the worst free-throw shooter among qualifiers in 2014-15 at 38.9 percent—the second-worst season on record.

Chamberlain is the only other player to qualify for the league lead in free-throw shooting to make less than 40 percent of his attempts, hitting a record-low 38 percent in 1967-68 while playing for the Philadelphia 76ers.

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Among the 10 worst free-throw seasons on record, per basketball-reference.com, Chamberlain owns positions No. 1, 5, 8 and 9 on the list. Drummond is second and fourth and Jordan is third and seventh.

Ben Wallace of the 2004-05 Pistons is No. 6 on the list and Chris Webber of the 1998-99 Sacramento Kings is 10th.

Interestingly, Shaquille O’Neal—the player whose name helped coin the phrase “Hack-A-Shaq” in the 1990s—doesn’t turn up on the list of worst free-throw shooting seasons until No. 11, when he hit 46.1 percent of his free throws for the Miami Heat in 2004-05.

Among the 25 worst seasons at the stripe, four of them were achieved last season. Besides Drummond and Jordan, Mason Plumlee of the Brooklyn Nets and Josh Smith, who spiit his season between Detroit and Houston, are also in the Hall of Shame at the line.

It’s not good TV. Everyone gets that, including Silver.

“It’s bad, I get it, from an aesthetic standpoint, from an entertainment standpoint, for fans,” Silver said during an appearance on ESPN’s Mike & Mike on Tuesday.

But the commissioner says he’s leaning toward leaving the issue alone.

“My inclination is not to change it, but we’ll continue to watch it,” Silver said. “We had a long discussion about it with the competition committee this summer and the decision was to leave it and let’s continue to track it.”

The issue with changing the rule is that you would essentially be changing the rules for a tiny minority of players who can’t seem to master one of the game’s most basic fundamentals—shooting a basketball unguarded from 15 feet away.

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    • “I hear from literally thousands of coaches—not just from the United States but from around the world—saying, ‘You cannot change this rule. What lesson does that send? The kids who are learning the game, this is a fundamental part of the game: A guy’s got to be able to make free throws.’”

    An interesting component of the equation—the perception that fans can’t stand the strategy and tune out of games—is also, according to Silver, patently false.

    “It’s fascinating when you look at the minute-by-minute television ratings,” Silver said. “It may be counterintuitive, but fans are actually not tuning out when it happens. I think it’s fascinating strategy used by [San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] and other great coaches, so it’s part of what draws people in.”

    The best way to combat the problem is simple: make your damn free throws.

    Changing the rules to accommodate players who are unable or unwilling to do the work to improve would be just as egregious as eliminating the 3-point line because too many players have gotten too good at shooting from that distance.

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