It's Time to make Free-Throw Shooting Interesting

Anyone sick of watching foul shooting yet?

Over the weekend, there were 639 fouls and 1187 free throws attempted in three basketball games. I may have embellished these numbers a bit but regardless, there were way too many fouls called. I don't mean to sound like Jeff Van Gundy here, but the officials should let the players play. The refs have been so uptight lately that Zydrundas Illgauskas accidentally dropped his cigarette during halftime of Sunday's game and was whistled for a violation.

If the refs are plan to call fouls on every possession, can't they at least make it entertaining?

Remember how fun "knock out" was? I propose that after a foul, each team chooses an opposing player on the court to shoot a free throw. Just like "knock out," two players will stand at the charity stripe one after the other. I figure that you might as well factor in an opposing player since there will inevitably be a foul called on the next possession anyway. Whoever scores the first basket wins the point.

How great would it be to see Daniel Gibson attempt to shoot a free throw over Marcin Gortat, only to have the ball bounce off the back of Gortat's head? Or even better, Big Z and Gortat sprinting in slow motion for a loose ball after Big Z's errant free throw almost decapitates both of them. This would be high comedy, someone needs to make this happen.