Sunday, June 2, 2013; 6:31:48 AM Eastern
How to cut down on flopping
The NBA added rules at the beginning of the 2012-2013 season that were intended to cut down on flopping. - Flopping is when a player acts, convincingly, as if he's been fouled.
- It's a form of acting.
- When viewed on replay sometimes there's absolutely no contact, but it looks like there was.
- The flopping player goes down, clutching his head, rolling over repeatedly, to call attention to the "offense" by the refs.
- Not sure how well it worked during the regular season, but it's not working in the playoffs. The stakes are so high, the players are willing to pay the fines if it means they can get a call to go their way. These games are often so close that a single possession can determine the outcome.
- It's probably even become part of the strategy of the game, and it's easy to imagine the coaches and the players, talking about it privately of course, maybe even in coded language.
- But if the coaches were penalized along with the players, it would likely curtail the flopping, maybe even stop it, esp if suspensions were added to the penalty, earlier in the process.
- It would change the dynamics if the coach could get suspended. It would mean that if the coach thought the player was doing it, he wouldn't put him in the game. It would get the coach on the side of the league and the fans, in stopping the practice.
- And the financial penalties would matter more to the coach, because they pay them for every player, and coaches don't make as much as the players do.