Look up basketball before the shot clock. Teams were winning games like 12-6 because once you got a lead you played keepaway

Hack-a-[player]

The entire mid-2000s tbh

While the NBA was defensive heavy in the 90s, the Fratello Cavaliers kind of epitomized the era to me.

After Brad Daugherty retired and Mark Price started declining, Mike Fratello turned the Cavs into a defensive slog machine, eking out wins with the worst offense in the league. They averaged something like 85-90 points a game while holding their opponents to a shade under.

Since they were short on offensive talent, his schemes just mucked games up like Paraguay just did in the WC.

whatever sga been doin last 2 seasons

isn’t that basically how the Pistons play?

Grind house Grizzlies

Intentionally fouling when you’re up 3 in the clutch

OKC is a rough equivalent

2015 finals after Kyrie got hurt. 

Haramball can’t really be ported over exactly to basketball because of how different it is as a sport compared to European football. But I’d argue that, despite being stylistically antipodal, modern analytic based schemes focused on getting up as many three pointers as possible fits the spirit of the haramball label as a style of play that’s ugly to watch (according to most) and seeks to, for lack of a better word, game the system. So I’d say it’s Celtic ball.

they used to call it the Princeton offense

Basically what the 2015 Cavs played against the Warriors in the NBA finals. Totally muck up the game and slow down the pace as much as possible

Foulbaiting (while claiming it’s “part of the game”)

It really was 90s ball.

Backdown forever, maximize possessions, limit fast breaks for both teams, prioritize offensive rebounds (used to reset full shot clock).

2nd 3 peat bulls…when they actually had a fast break, everyone got so excited.

Virginia cavaliers 

It’s always been zonal defence in european basketball.

Pistons/Magic

The Mike fratello cavs- walked the ball up the court every time. This was in the 90s when teams weren’t scoring much to begin with

Not a lot of memory for Mike Fratello’s Cavs teams in the mid 90s but they were this to a T.

They would play with the slowest pace possible, run the clock down and keep the score in the 70s, 80s. For a while in the regular season they were top of the east. It was excruciating to watch.

Maybe something like Hack-a-Shaq? Going against the spirit of competitive play, gaining an advantage by fouling, prevents a dominate big man from doing what the fans came to see. Or perhaps when losing teams intentionally foul at the end of games to stop the clock.

“Hack-a-Shaq” is intentionally fouling a poor free-throw shooting player, named after Shaquille O’Neal, though he wasn’t the first it was used against.

OKC in today’s nba, the 00s and 80s Pistons.

Hack a Shaq then taking the ball slowly up the court, not shooting until like 3 seconds left. Tons of iso ball into mid range jumpers but also foul baiting while doing it.

Also your team would be largely tall physical players with little to no skill offensively and on defense just hacks you hard everytime you’re in the paint

It’s why the shot clock exists

Heat next season

2004 pistons. We won’t score much but you will score less

The youths won’t remember Long Beach State running the clock down almost every possession against a stacked UNLV team http://www.espn.com/ncb/tournament/2010/columns/story?id=5045144

Hard to do in basketball because the rules are deliberately designed to keep the game moving and players scoring. Add the equivalent of the shot clock, back court violation, 8 second advancing rule, offensive/defensive 3 second violations, five-second back-down rule, restricted area rules, stopped clock during dead time etc. and football would look very different.

maybe last years Pistons, basically used OKCs “they can’t call everything” strategy on defense but with god awful offense. Not great watching for a neutral.

Four corners offense

Imagine pre shot clock hoops and then every shot taken is a foul bait

took me a sec to realize Haramball has nothing to do with and is not pronounced like Harambe (rip dicks out)

Pre shot clock era

The dead ball era

Grit and Grind 

Not really a thing in the NBA as much the NCAA given the 24 second shot clock. Maybe look up on you tube four corners offense which teams actually ran all game before the shot clock and Princeton’s offense from their hey day when it was still 45 seconds.

Dead ball era

They had games that were single digits by both sides before the shot clock.

Bo Ryan Wisconsin Badgers

this year’s playoffs have some example like the pistons magic series or that game 4 of raptors vs cavs

Gonna go out on a limb and say the foul baiting that got a guy nicknamed “Hitler” is the basketball equivalent of haramball

I don’t know about basketball, but this is Mayweather’s bread and butter in his fight against Pacquiao

Edit: it’s essentially OKC ball in basketball, foulbaiting/soft whistles and flopping on offense while hacking opponents in defence without consequences

Hubie Brown’s 1984-85 Knicks:

‘Trent [Tucker] hold it up. You only have a 5 on 0.’

24-25 Heat

Whatever Wisconsin was doing in the 2010. Can throw those Virginia teams there too.

Bad boy pistons

go watch deadball era hoops and you will know

The zone defense tbh. If a team dont have a player who can get hot from 3 or drive to the paint, youre gonna watch a lot of bricks and shot clock violations.

Heat mastered the art of snoozefests. Yeah, the opponents cant shoot the ball, but neither can they.

What the Spurs did in the finals?

Like the Marc gasol, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen grizzlies I guess?

For my fellow college fans, it’s 100% Buzzball

Doesn’t exist

Nothing, Paraguay and Uruguay are the equivalent of playing 5 Lou Dorts

I feel like I have been so unlucky to try to turn on soccer games this year and every time it looks exciting something stops the game and it’s bad haha. I’m so ready to be into the sport.

Now I see your post and I’m dying again! Soccer has pokemon stall?????

Mid 90s Knicks.

The Celtics in the playoffs

2003 Detroit Pistons ball.

Houston Rockets led by the Goon (Amen), taller Goon (Tari), Sengun, and the Gooner (KD).

NO OFFENSE beyond beating up opponents, KD loser iso ball, and offensive rebounds

Grind House Grizzlies was a thing for a while.

Nowhere near to the extent as football. But it can happen somewhat. There was a game in 2018 or 19 that the Rockets successfully stalled the whole 4th quarter with a 10 point lead vs. the Warriors.

Grit & Grind and I fucking loved it

4 corners

College basketball but Tony Bennett’s pack line defense at Virginia was a chore to watch most nights.

watch some of this for the equivalent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bWwD8uSds

Watch the thunder

2004 Detroit Pistons.

Miami heat 2020-2023

the opposite of what the spurs did in the finals

thought it was called allegriball

Thunder

Orlando vs. Detroit series this year.

Dean Smith.

Not a perfect comparison but I get hack a shaq vibes from haramball.

Pre-shotclock basketball

Not NBA, but Northwestern University in the mid-2000s with the Princeton offense and 1-3-1 zone made for some ugly, low-scoring ball.

Honestly, I didn’t even realize that haramball originated in soccer/football! The first time I heard about it was describing OKC and fouls/flopping. Inshallah basketball starts using it more lmao.

The four corners offence pre-shot clock is the actual answer

B1G basketball

The Four Corners offense is no longer legal, and the Bennett Ball style of the prime Virginia and Wisconsin teams is on its way out now that NIL/free transfers make it difficult for a team to stay together. And thank God, too. When I watch a basketball game, I would like a guarantee that I’ll see more points than a Big 12 football game.

On the flip side of the Hack-a-strat, players who are heaving, slashing or deliberately landing in ways that they’re going to draw fouls rather than looking to score

Playing through a foul to make a point is exciting, shooting for the foul is effective but utterly anti-basketball. Spending half the game at the free throw line because you’ve learned to bait the defense/referees is probably just as annoying as the opposing team hacking the worst FT shooter.

And unlike Hacking, this hasn’t really been worked out of the game yet through rule changes

The pistons franchise, you can decide to plug in whatever year

Watching Chris Paul when you have the over in a game.

Intentional fouling while up three at the end of a game is absolutely haram

GSW

There is no defensive play in basketball resembling haramball because of the shot clock. Watching elite defense is fun in basketball as it relies on reactions and agility instead of fucking camping at the exact same position.

If I treat haramball from the “bane of the sport” angle though the answer is flopping. Players intentionally stopping the flowing game for easy couple of points and superstars getting privileged calls on top of that is the problem to deal with. Sports viewers, especially younger generations, demand more flashy and uninterrupted gameplay and both haramball and flopping go directly against that as pace killers.

2004-2006 San Antonio Spurs. Bruce Bowen was the apotheosis of haramball

You have less of an opportunity to do these things because of the shot clock. And NBA refs have more tools to punish without completely altering the game.

The yellow and red card system is too harsh, so refs must hold back, and the players know it. You can’t circle around and harass NBA refs. You will get a technical foul pretty easily.

Really the only thing you can do in basketball is flop and feign injury.

Not an nba example, but in the modern era of shot clocks I’d say uva under Tony Bennett would be a good example. They definitely weren’t always out talented, they won the chip with Kyle guy ty Jerome and Deandre hunter. But I remember a lot of neutral fans being frustrated with their style of play and calling it boring to watch.

Haram ball? James Harden, who has the Taliban beard, played a lot of Haram ball. Nowadays, it’s SGA. Meanwhile, Halal ball would be your Jalen Brunsons, Kyrie Irvings

Current iteration of okc. Defensive philosophy is forcing the refs to make more calls than they want to. Offensively their engine hunts free throws.

Dean Smith Four Corners offense.

Four corners (pre shot clock). Pack line D (UVA under Bennet).

Modern stuff I dunno, I guess if we think about strategies that arguably work but make for a worse fan experience - might be like the foul merchant teams.

OKC/selling contact

Eastern Conference basketball post Jordan. Final scores in the 60’s and 70’s with rather rudimentary offenses, especially compared to the motion offenses of today. Or the Harden/SGA era foul baiting. Take your choice.

Drose-Thibodeau Bulls

Teams that play super physically but act like they got electrocuted if you touch them. Heat pistons thunder

that first round fraud-off between the pistons and magic

The great thing about basketball it’s high scoring so you can’t use clown strats or meme your way to wins consistently

Honestly?

3 pt chucking. That or foul baiting