There's a reason the NBA has dumb rules like Hack-a-Shaq, which is messing up a perfectly good post-season, dating back to the 1940s when the league emerged from the bushes in Tri-Cities and Ft. Wayne.
We always did it this way.
I didn't say it was a good reason.
If hacking represents the absence of an obviously needed rule, these playoffs should be a landmark with the outcry at seeing, or changing channels to miss the Clippers' DeAndre Jordan shoot 34 free throws (missing 20) in a 25-point win over Houston.
With the game on TNT's air, Charles Barkley called it "awful to watch," lamenting the plight of the fans. Shaquille O'Neal's shooting coach, Buzz Braman, texted USA Today, "I"m barfing watching this [bleep]."
You'd think that would do it, especially with Commissioner Adam Silver sending up trial balloons, saying there will be a "full-throated discussion."
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees it's an issue. In fact, team officials who do may be in the minority.
"Change the rule? For what?" asked an Eastern Conference GM. "For DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard? Learn to shoot free throws."
Wilt is gone but not all the bush-league touches. (Sports Illustrated photo)
A recent meeting of the NBA's Competition Committee developed no consensus to fix this, according to CBSSports' Ken Berger, noting that almost 80% of this season's hacking was done to just five players: Jordan, Howard, Andre Drummond , Josh Smith and Joey Dorsey.
This follows tradition in which coaches keep apologizing, insisting that the rules oblige them to do it... then voting against changing the rules.
Dr James Naismith never envisioned a game you could stop whenever your opponent gets the ball so everybody can troop to the foul line to shoot free throws. Unfortunately, the NBA game that evolved is very different.
It gets more different all the time with NBA coaches ever-more inventive about gaming the system. The Clippers' Doc Rivers got around the rule against hacking players off the ball in the last two minutes by having his guys jump on Howard as they shot free throws--when he was technically in the play.
This being a new wrinkle, they couldn't be subtle. To get the referees' attention, Chris Paul physically climbed up Dwight's back.
Even with the game's most-hacked player--San Antonio's Gregg Popovich put Jordan on the line 73 times in the first round victory, of which he missed 45--the Clippers defend the tactic. In the second round, they began hacking the Rockets for all they were worth, leading to Jordan's 34 free throws in Game 3.
For added entertainment, Howard shot 11. If this was a test of the national gag reflex, the NBA failed.
If you wonder why today's slick, global, rich league needs this throwback to its bumpkin past, it's--you guessed it--always been this way.
Commissioner David Stern once ruled all but absolutely but saw his attempt to ban hacking voted down in the Competition Committee, according to a league source. Now the focus of power has shifted away from the commissioner's office to the new breed of owners who make Dallas' Mark Cuban look mainsteam or camera-shy (see: Sacramento's Vivek Ranadive).
In this environment, common sense is one thing, reality too often another.
"Nobody likes it," said ABC's Mike Breen as the Clippers foul Howard in Game 7. "Nobody likes to watch it... [But] at the GM meetings last week, there didn't seem to be a lot of movement to changing that rule."
"That's a positive to come out of that meeting," said color commentator Jeff Van Gundy, incredulously. "I would ask them, 'Then why is it not allowed in the last two minutes? That's the only thing I want them to answer. If it's such a great rule, why wouldn't we have it the whole game?' "
I know that answer: It's always been that way!
Breen, the league's signature voice, works at the pleasure of the NBA so he's virtually an employee. So is Van Gundy, whose freewheeling candor makes him a broadcast treasure.
Of course, there is a higher power that the owners do recognize: The networks who will start paying the NBA $2.6 billion a season next fall. I'd guess Silver talks to TV people regularly enough to know how they feel about hacking, and it's not good.
I don't know how this will turn out but whatever happens will say a lot about where the league's head is up.
