Speaking to USA Today’s NBA A to Z podcast (a solid listen if you groove to The Starters/Hang Time/Eye on Basketball etc.), commissioner Adam Silver recognized that repeated intentional fouling of a handful of poor foul shooters—particularly the unholy Trinity of DeAndre Jordan, Andre Drummond, and Dwight Howard—was making fans miserable. “Hack a [insert bad free throw shooter’s name]” has been on the rise for the last few seasons and, while it can be effective in halting a team’s momentum or cutting a deficit, it also slows the pace of the game down to a crawl. And, in a world dominated by the NFL’s stop-start lurch, pace is the NBA’s greatest strength. Here’s Silver, giving a good overview of the situation:
Again, as I travel around the league, there’s that one school of thought “Guys have got to make their free throws.” But then at the end of the day, we are an entertainment property, and it’s clear that when you’re in the arena, that fans are looking at me, shrugging their shoulders with that look saying, “Aren’t you going to do something about this?”
Silver said that he and his team would look into closing loopholes that allow coaches to intentionally foul over and over again. This is great news for NBA fans, the NBA, and DeAndre, Andre, and Dwight.