Adam Silver Subverts The Rules of Basketball To Order Brick-Layers To Make Their Free-Throws

Prepare for a lot more unwatchable NBA this season, people!

The NBA will NOT alter the rules to prevent a "Hack-A-Player" scenario, with Adam Silver telling ESPN through Yardbarker:

"“On the other hand, I hear from literally thousands of coaches – not just from the United States but from around the world – saying, ‘You cannot change this rule. What lesson does that send? The kids who are learning the game, this is a fundamental part of the game: A guy’s got to be able to make free throws.'”"

And that's exactly what he's telling DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard:  Improve from the charity stripe or effectively be driven from the NBA by being hacked into oblivion.

Never mind that the NBA has rules that would already cover this situation if the referees bothered to enforce them!

From the NBA's own website:

"A flagrant foul-penalty (1) is unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent.

A flagrant foul-penalty (2) is unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent. It is an unsportsmanlike act and the offender is ejected immediately."

You don't need to change the rules, Commissioner Silver.  You simply need to enforce the rules you have.

If a team is going to continually stop play by fouling a poor free-throw shooter for the simple purpose that the player is a poor free-throw shooter (without regard that they are trying to stop the clock late in a game, which might also need to be addressed -- because all previous attempts to discourage that have gone wanting on all levels of basketball!), then it is unecessary -- hence, a flagrant foul.

If they continue to take the game and make a farce of it, it becomes excessive on top of it.