DALLAS, April 24 (UPI) -- NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he plans to have talks with the league this summer on the possibility of eliminating the hack-a-Shaq strategy from the NBA, according to ESPN.
"It's something that I'm on the fence about," Silver told ESPN.com before Friday night's Game 3 in the Dallas Mavericks-Houston Rockets series. "My thought used to be that we should definitely change the rule, and then having sat through several general managers meetings, competition meetings and having heard from some of the game's very best, the view is the players should hit their free throws. That's changed my view a little bit."
The strategy of intentionally fouling bad free throw shooters became popular against former NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal, who dominated in the paint, but shrank at the free throw line.
"Having said that, when I watch some of these games on television, frankly, it's not great entertainment for our fans, and that's important as well," Silver told Tim MacMahon. "What I've said is we have another general managers meeting coming up in May, we have a competition committee meeting in June, and I'm sure it's going to be a hot topic of discussion."
"Then, we have an owners meeting in July, so I think at all three of those meetings we're going to be having full-throated conversations about what the right rules should be going forward."
One player who is prime to get hack-a-Shaq treatment is Clippers big man DeAndre Jordan, who is shooting 39.7 percent this season from the stripe. According to NBAMiner.com, the Clippers' Blake Griffin led big men with 360 fouls drawn last season. Dwight Howard had 348 fouls drawn.
