NBA Not Likely to Reform Hack-a-Shaq, Playoff Seeding

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that there is little likelihood the league will move to reform some of the widely discussed issues such as intentional fouling and conference imbalance that have materialized this postseason.

Calls to ban the Hack-a-Shaq tactic, in which a team deliberately sends an opponent’s poor foul shooter to the free throw line, have grown increasingly louder in recent weeks, but Silver said executives at the league’s general managers meeting May 13 voiced opposition to modifying the rule.

On the suggestion of seeding NBA playoff teams 1 through 16 rather than ordering the top eight in each conference, Silver said concerns over player health and the longer distances teams would travel during early-round matchups were a deterrence.

Source: Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN