Foul to Fair

Imagine Philip Anschutz getting a winning lottery ticket, Hugh Hefner getting another girlfriend, Randy Johnson getting a new pitch.

There’s a word for that: “Overkill.”

Imagine Shaquille O’Neal developing a consistently smooth and accurate shot from the free-throw line.

There’s a word for that too. Several of them, in fact, the types of words Mike Tyson favors and are not printable in a family newspaper. Such words may be muttered more and more by opposing players.

Because it is becoming apparent that O’Neal, already the dominant player in the league, is overcoming his biggest weakness.

The man who once stared across the free-throw line as if it were a barrier between him and the basket now saunters up with a smile on his face, a relaxed air about him. Where once he shot free throws with his body stiff, his arm pausing at the top of his motion as if he were a cop halting traffic, now he goes through the routine with fluidity and finality.

Said teammate Rick Fox, “Shaq once joked that if he made his free throws, it would not really be fair. I guess he has decided to make it a little more unfair.

“He’s not running away from fouls anymore. He’s looking for people to foul him. He’s even talking a little trash at the line.”

Kobe Bryant has also noticed.

“He seems more confident,” Bryant said. “People are not dogging him out because he’s making [his free throws]. Teams can’t do that anymore.”

The evidence is clear. O’Neal’s free-throw shooting, acceptable at times, horrendous at other times over his 10-year career, was poor enough to inspire Hack-a-Shaq, the strategy of deliberately fouling O’Neal to force him to his weakest area, the free-throw line.

Over the years, O’Neal has made little more than half his free throws. Twice in regular-season play, he finished below 50%. While still with the Orlando Magic, in 12 playoff games in the 1995-96 season, he shot 39.3% from the line.

But this season, he was successful on 55.5% of his free throws. Over his final seven regular-season games, O’Neal shot a stunning--for him--70.1% from the line. In the three playoff games against the Portland Trail Blazers, he shot 65.7% (23 of 35).

“Over the last year, it seemed like he changed it all the time,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “One time he’d be shooting the ball from here, one time from there, one time on the way up and one time while he’s stiff-legged.... Now he’s got a system that works.... This is the longest consistent period of time he’s shot the ball.”

What has changed?

Ed Palubinskas, a free-throw coach, hasn’t worked with O’Neal in a year, but that didn’t stop Palubinskas from taking credit for the turnaround.

“Let’s put it this way, he’s following everything I wanted him to do and he never did that before I was there,” Palubinskas said from his Baton Rouge, La., home.

“What has happened is that he has eliminated all the rubbish. His follow-through is consistent. It’s still not as consistent as you would like, but are you kidding me? He’s gone over 70%. What happened to Hack-a-Shaq?

“I love it, just love it. All the extra movement, all that garbage he was carrying on the mechanics are gone. Now he’s tighter. There is no wasted energy. I can’t remember seeing him hit the front of the rim. It’s becoming more and more a part of him.

“I just hope he has a memory chip in his brain so that he can continue to remember what we worked on, but he’s pretty close now to where he needs to be.”

Palubinskas says there are simple remedies for O’Neal if he should falter again.

“For example, if he is hitting the back of the rim, he needs to get his elbow further under the ball by five degrees,” Palubinskas said.

Laker special consultant Bill Sharman, who shot 88.3% from the line in his playing career, thinks a toe injury, which kept O’Neal on the sidelines often during practice this season, might have been a key factor, leaving O’Neal with nothing else to do but work on his free throws.

“The biggest thing in being a good free-throw shooter is repetition,” Sharman said.

Whatever the reason, the result could have the rest of the league crying foul.

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*--* Lining Them Up Shaquille O’Neal’s .555 free-throw percentage during the 2001-02 regular season was his best since his rookie year. A look at O’Neal’s free-throw percentages for his career and his averages for makes and attempts: Season Team Ftm Fta Pct 92-93 Orlando 5.3 8.9 592 93-94 Orlando 5.8 10.5 554 94-95 Orlando 5.8 10.8 533 95-96 Orlando 4.6 9.5 487 96-97 Lakers 4.5 9.4 484 97-98 Lakers 6.0 11.4 527 98-99 Lakers 5.5 10.2 540 99-00 Lakers 5.5 10.4 524 00-01 Lakers 6.7 13.1 513 01-02 Lakers 5.9 10.7 555

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