The NBA released their statement on the new flop rule yesterday afternoon. Thank you.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I am the most avid NBA fan. In fact, it’s probably my least favorite of the big-four sports put on by the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA. But, I still watch and the constant flopping is a big reason why it is so frustrating watching an NBA game.
How many times have we seen a 6-foot-5, 200-plus pound forward fall to the ground after a he gets a half a shoulder bump, or Lebron James act like a slap on the wrist from Russell Westbrook while going through the lane really affects him? It’s just ridiculous.
The statement released by Stu Jackson, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, gives a good explanation of what flopping is doing to the game.
“Flops have no place in our game — they either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call,” Jackson said. “Accordingly, both the Board of Governors and the Competition Committee felt strongly that any player who the league determines, following video review, to have committed a flop should — after a warning — be given an automatic penalty.”
For the first offense a player only gets a warning, the second offense is $5,000, $10,000 for the third offense, $15,000 for the fourth and $30,000 for the fifth offense. After that the league will review the play and determine the appropriate punishment.
Sounds pretty harsh, but let’s be honest—it needs to be.
In reality I don’t think there is going to be a huge change this year in the way the game is played. In the heat of the game the officials aren’t going to be able to do a better job than they are already doing. It’s tough to make the call in a split second on court level. It’s much easier to judge when seeing the replay 12 times and in slow motion, so I don’t have too much contempt for the officials.
I don’t really blame the players either. The players are going to try and get away with as much as they can—that’s how competition is, especially at the highest level. But, it is something that needed to be addressed.
The rule will hopefully help cut down on the amount of flops fans see, but for players that make tons of money, i.e. James, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, it’s not a huge hit to their pockets and they will still flop. They are good at it, too. It’s going to affect the players who are making the league minimum. It’s not going to hurt the most heinous offenders but it is going to help start weeding out the act of flopping.
All fans can really hope for is that it’s a step in the right direction and will set a precedent for years to come.
