Coaches’ Corner: Coaches Instructing Players to Cheat

I get to watch a lot of games in retirement. Sometimes you see really good things that promote basketball as a sport, and sadly sometimes you see things that are ugly and have no place in sports. 

This season, I witnessed a coach instructing their players to cheat in a basketball game. In a close game, a foul was committed by the other team. It was clear which player had been fouled. The fouled player knew they had been fouled and went to the free throw line to shoot their free throws. 

The coaches signaled to the “star” player to go to the foul line. You are probably saying,”How do you know that is what they did?” 

I rewound the game tape several times. At first glance, it was obvious there was interaction between the “star” and the head coach and the assistant coach. When I watched it on a better TV, clearly you could see the assistant coach point at the “star” and make a shooting motion. 

In my career as a coach and as a fan, I only saw a coach instructing their players to do this one other time in my career. Maybe I am just not observant or maybe it is easy to get away with it. 

I decided to check with some other coaches to get their reaction to this FT strategy. Here are the thoughts of some other coaches…

“If I knew a coach did this, I would tip off the refs before the game and have an assistant monitor who the shooter is always.”

“I think I have maybe only seen a coaching staff try this a couple of times. It is bush league if they intentionally do it, especially multiple times. I would be livid because it is cheating. And I would think a parent would be unhappy.”

“If I heard a coach did this, I may not catch them every time…but I would try.”

“I remember vividly in the early 90’s when an area coach was doing this.  One of the parents of a player on that team sent letters to all of the future opponents alerting them that the coach intentionally changes free throw shooters.”  

“I haven’t found it to happen very often.  If confusion exists as to who should shoot the free throws then I see the better shooter volunteering to shoot.”

“We just had it happen. An African-American player was fouled in front of our bench, the other coach tried to send a White player to the foul line. We protested. The refs huddled and just switched to put the correct shooter to the line, but there was no penalty for the coaching trying to do it.” 

“I would directly address the officials if this was to happen.  If it was a common occurrence with a certain coach or team I would in a subtle way try to alert the officials to pay extra attention to it.” 

“I have heard this being done before. If it happened to me, I would probably “go apeshit” to rectify the situation…which could, if the officials didn’t agree with me, cause myself to receive a technical. Very underhanded, but I could see it working, especially with weak officials.”

“I rarely see it, it is obviously a planned tactic! I would make sure some of my coaching friends are aware that this is going on.” 

“I have seen it done before. If someone asked me about that coach, no matter what good things they have done in coaching, the first thing I would say about them,”They’re the one who taught kids to cheat on free throws.”

“As a parent I would be pissed for sure. As parents, we felt strongly about not interfering with the coach, but I think we might meet with the coach about that one. I would have a real problem with a coach teaching my kid to cheat.”

“When I played in high school, we lost a big game when a coach switched shooters. Years later, I still know the name of that coach and the name of the player who cheated. In my opinion, that is the damage you can inflict on one of your players for having them act in a way that is not consistent with good sportsmanship.”  

“Some years ago a coach got caught on camera doing it at state!  Got suspended for the first game of the following season.”

Share your comments on the coaches switching FT shooters: 

What can or should a ref do if they realize the coach is switching FT shooters?

What should the coach’s AD do if they become aware of this?

What should the opposing coach do in this situation?

What should the parents of the team with this FT strategy do?

What should players do if a coach asks them to do this?