Shaquille O’Neal is without a doubt, the most dominant player in the history of the NBA. Teams in the NBA were almost helpless whenever Shaq drove the ball and took it to the rim. But there was one strategy to contain that took off in the late 90s and early 2000s; the Hack-A-Shaq.
The Hack-A-Shaq strategy entailed fouling Shaquille O’Neal whenever he tried to drive to the basket in order to deny him the basket and send him to the free throw line. Shaq’s Achilles heel throughout the course of his career has always been making free throws, as he was never able to make his free throws consistently enough.
For a player like Shaq, being consistently sent to the free throw line would presumably have been frustrating. But O’Neal spoke about the Hack-A-Shaq strategy in the past, and actually was quite positive about it. Shaq noted that the Hack-A-Shaq strategy was just a way of telling him that he was too difficult to contain.
“The Hack-A-Shaq is just a way of telling me that you can’t stop me. Thank you. I appreciate it.”
This strategy did garner some success from time to time, and perhaps no one went to that well more than San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich. In fact, Popovich once hilariously asked his Spurs to foul Shaquille O’Neal as soon as he got the ball during a game, as he was trying to prank Shaq.
O’Neal spoke about the Hack-A-Shaq strategy during his time as an analyst. The strategy had become popular again as teams were using it against DeAndre Jordan and the Lob City Clippers. Shaq noted that the rules don’t need to be changed, and teams should start playing better defense and getting stops to counter the strategy.
Clearly, Shaq had no problem with the Hack-A-Shaq approach, as he understood that teams that didn’t have the tools to stop him would employ the strategy in order to contain him. While it did have its merits, there were times when teams regretted sending Shaq to the line, as he would make both of his shots.
The Hack-A-Shaq was perhaps the only way teams would have a chance at stopping Shaquille O’Neal. Such was the greatness of Shaq, that he had teams forcibly fouling him just to get a reprieve from his dominance on the offensive end of the court.
