During the Chicago Bulls' eventual loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on April Fools, I mean New Year's Eve, play-by-play announcer Neil Funk did not understand the repeated intentional fouls on Bobcats center Bismack Biyombo. They call this the Hack Strategy in the biz, and the point is to foul the player with the lowest free throw percentage.
Biyombo's is pretty awful – less than 50%. Stacey King, the color commentator, undertstood the strategy and at one point tried to explain it to Funk, who then gets a bit defensive. He says he understands – but he really doesn't. In fact, he sounds like he's in frustrated disbelief over what transpires, even asking angrily, "what are we doing???" It's pretty amazing that an NBA announcer wouldn't understand the team was fouling intentionally in this situation. King finally points out it is a good strategy, which I guess would have driven home the point a bit better if the Bulls had actually won the game.
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About Reva Friedel
Reva is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and the AP Party. She lives in Orange County and roots for zero California teams.