David Stern and the league’s competition committee (which includes Doc Rivers) are mulling ways to deter flopping:
The NBA commissioner believes too many players are deceiving referees into calling fouls by falling down, or flopping. So he and the league’s newly reformed competition committee met Monday for a discussion about how it can be prevented.
One option, Stern said, is a “postgame analysis” in which a player could be penalized if it was determined he flopped. The league retroactively upgrades or downgrades flagrant fouls after review, and along those lines he said that perhaps a player could receive a message from New York saying: “Greetings from the league office. You have been assigned flopper status.”
“No, I’m joking, but something like that,” Stern said. “That sort of lets people know that it’s not enough to say ‘it’s all part of the game.’ “
It’s not fair to expect game officials to call fouls for flopping. They can’t master the current set of rules. I could see it working if the league permitted use of instant replay, but do we really want to slow down the game for flopping replays?
This “postgame analysis” Stern speaks of could work, if the penalty is severe. Forget fines. You need suspensions. Accumulate three flopping penalties and get suspended for one game. Each subsequent flopping penalty would also garner a one game suspension. This sounds drastic, but it’s the only way to clean up the game.
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