Shaq was such a specimen in his prime that coaches needed to come up with new and innovative ways to try to slow him down. And former New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) head coach Byron Scott admitted to coming up with the next best thing to slow down The Big Aristotle; send him to the free throw line.
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Scott opened up about facing Shaq and the Lakers in the ‘02 NBA Finals during his podcast, Byron Scott’s Fast Break. Describing the problems O’Neal gave him and his solution for it, this is what the three-time NBA champion had to say.
“Listen, we couldn’t stop him. We couldn’t. Look, we couldn’t guard him. We couldn’t guard him, we couldn’t guard Kobe…This dude is 7’1, 290…But Diesel was so damn good and he was so strong, even when we would double-team him, he would kick it back.”
Scott further broke down O’Neal’s tendencies to overcome being double-teamed in the paint.
“The next thing he would do, just bang you back in and then throw it in. Now, he got both feet in the paint and you can’t double. It’s too late. I had to go to a point like, ‘Look man, when he just catches, foul him.’ Cause if we don’t foul him, he’s getting two.”
The Lakers legend transformed himself into one of the strongest and most dominant centers under head coach, Phil Jackson. And while Shaq mostly used his strength to overpower defenders, Scott went on to mention some other moves the seven-footer had in his arsenal.
“He’s getting the dunk, he’s got the jump hook, he’s got the little turnaround. So, if we fouled him, worst case scenario, he’s going to hit two(free throws). But best case, he’s going to miss at least one of those free throws. So, hell yeah I fouled him on purpose.”
In the early 2000s, the league wasn’t big on stretch forwards or centers. So, as a seven-foot center, O’Neal had always had the upper hand on his defender, especially after his transformation in LA.
If there was something Diesel did not excel in, it was making free throws. And that became a norm in the league. To prevent him from getting two easy points, Shaq was often fouled and sent to the free-throw line.
This tactic was later termed Hack-A-Shaq and several other teams embraced it as well.
The Hack-A-Shaq rule
The Hack-A-Shaq tactic gained popularity during his time with the Lakers. O’Neal went on to win three straight NBA championships with LA and the league seemed to have no answer for him in the paint.
But one thing was evident, Shaq was never a shooter. Furthermore, The Big Aristotle struggled to even drain his free throws. And opposing teams quickly picked up on that by sending in players to specifically foul Shaq to send him to the free-throw line.
Given how common the Hack-A-Shaq tactic had become even after leaving the Lakers, O’Neal was often asked if he ever worked on his free throws during training.
Years later, The Big Aristotle even opened up about his struggles from the free throw line on The Old Man and the Three podcast.
“I don’t know if it was a concentration thing…But I don’t make excuses. I did practice. I practiced that more than practicing my moves…I worked with every shot doctor and watched everybody from D-Scott and Glen Rice…And again, when I’m at the crib, my sh*t was butter. But when I got in the game, sometimes.”
O’Neal did state he’d drain free throws that mattered the most in the playoffs or the Finals. But even after working out his free throws at home or during practice, he’d still struggle to convert those shots on a nightly basis, ending his career with a dismal 52.7% FT conversion rate.
