NBA hopes to get rid of flopping
We’ve all seen it happen, a player runs up to the paint to make a shot, nearly bumps someone en route only to have a foul call slapped on him because the other guy purposely made it look like he was knocked over. This practice of “flopping” is one of those annoying parts about the NBA that can turn a game around. Everyone does it at one point, but in recent years it has become a bit excessive causing a series of fines, but it seems that they might not be enough.
The fines started out at $5,000, which seems like a decent sum, but when you are making millions each year it doesn’t do much to deter flopping, especially if it can help your team change the momentum to win a big game.
NBA Commissioner David Stern is taking a stand though as he hopes to clean up the NBA of this bad habit once and for all.
“It isn’t enough. It isn’t enough.” Stern said. “You’re not going to cause somebody to stop it for $5,000 when the average player’s salary is 5.5 million. And anyone who thought that was going to happen was allowing hope to prevail over reason. But you take a step and you begin to see it.”
Stern tried to start things off slow but it did not work, so will drastic measures need to be taken? Stern certainly seems to think so in order to shake up the players in the NBA to get the league back on the right track.
“We knew that flopping was going to be far from perfect,” Stern said. “And we gather more attention because we were giving it more attention. But the point was to do it gently, look at all the flops, and there have been plenty, penalize the most egregious very gently. We could end that immediately if we decided to suspend players, but that might be a little bit draconian at the moment. And so it’s going to be up to the Board and the Competition Committee to decide how much they want to do.”
It will be interesting to see what the NBA decides to do. While suspensions may be a bit too far, bigger fines will definitely be in the mix as Stern hopes to end flopping forever.
