Written by Tim Bontemps at WashingtonPost.com
Change may finally be coming to the Hack-A-Shaq rules.
Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens unintentionally set off the latest round of debates about the subject of intentional fouling when, prior to Boston’s home game against Sacramento Sunday afternoon, he said the NBA had sent out an email saying that when teams have a player jump on the back of an opposing player during a free throw, instead of a loose-ball foul – which results in two free throws – it would be a flagrant foul, meaning two foul shots as well as getting the ball back again.
The only problem? Stevens wasn’t quite accurate. A member of the NBA’s competition committee, Stevens had been sent a memo by league officials, along with the other committee members, discussing a potential change in how the play is viewed by officials, and somehow misinterpreted that – leading to league officials then spending Sunday morning and early afternoon trying to walk back what Stevens had said.
Still, even the league admitted an adjustment at how the play is interpreted was on the horizon – as it should be. There have been far too many words written and spoken about intentional fouling already, but this play of having guys leap onto the back of poor foul shooters standing at the line is one that was inevitably going to lead to someone getting hurt.
This won’t be nearly enough to make the very vocal detractors of the overall policy happy; nothing short of getting rid of intentional fouling completely is going to do that. But this is a good first step.
And if you take what NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this week to USA Today about the subject, it could be the first of many steps.
“I’m increasingly of the view that we will be looking to make some sort of change in that rule this summer,” Silver said.
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