A radical idea for basketball

A foul is supposed to be bad thing in sports, something for which the team that commits it is assessed a penalty. You wouldn't think that, however, watching the NBA playoffs. The last couple minutes of your typical NBA game often features the exciting prospects of one team deliberately fouling another in order to gain a competitive advantage. Then there's what has come to be known as "Hack-a-Shaq," named in honor of Shaquille O'Neal, a notoriously poor free throw shooter. The technique involves the team behind in the score fouling the other team's worst free-throw shooter, counting on him to miss his free throws.

This may be strategically sound for a trailing team but I don't think it works with fans of the sport. So in the interests of basketball purity and fan enjoyment of the game I am going to offer the following proposed rule changes.

1. A team may designate any of the five players it has on the court to shoot fouls. It doesn't necessarily have to be the player who was fouled. That's the way it works in soccer penalty shots and the way it works when basketball teams shoot technical fouls.

2. In the last two minutes of a game, any team that would normally be awarded two shots for a foul would be awarded three.

If these rule changes were implemented, then fouls would be closer to what they were intended to be -- something to avoid.