I'm not saying it has to be on a shot. In fact, that's obviously more dangerous to the shooter, so that would spark more flagrants. But the fact that it would cause more potential flagrants is another deterrent to the usage of the intentional fouls, which is what Stern seems to sponsor.
Still, you can wrap up the player as soon as he has the ball and not increase the chance for injury. It levels the playing field for the offense and defense: if the player receives the ball, then the defense can employ the hacking strategy, but on the other side, the offense has the option to avoid giving that player the ball.
That's still a slight advantage to the defense because they might basically be playing 5 on 4, because a guy like Shaq might not receive the ball down low in the 4th quarter. I mean, how many times has Shaq gotten an offensive board, brought the ball down and been wrapped up by multiple guys to send him to the line instead of allowing a dunk? This would be no different.
And no, there is not only 1 team that has employed it against Shaq - there were more than a few that did it during the regular season, but there was only one team that used it in the playoffs this year because Mike D'Antoni only got them as far as the first round.