Stop The Flop
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008If you're new here, and you're into sports and/or the Christian faith, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The flop has got to stop.
It just has to.
Flopping is an integral part of the game in soccer, and I’m ok with that. But basketball? No, It can’t be allowed.
In soccer, your average penalty has little effect on the game. Players do not get penalized when the whistle blows, unless it’s for something flagrant demanding a yellow or red card. The team who gets possession of the ball will rarely score on the kick that results from the penalty because, well, teams in soccer rarely score.
But in basketball, fouls are extremely important. Because you’re limited to 6 per game, a couple of cheap ones early can mean the difference between your star player being on the floor and riding the pine. Though hockey comes close with its penalty box, no other sport is like this. No other sport puts a limit on minor rule violations that results in taking minutes away from players. Whether or not that should be changed is a whole other discussion, but for now, let’s get back to flopping.
If you saw the end of last night’s Rockets-Jazz game, you know why I am bringing this up today. Houston’s Bobby Jackson hit a game-tying 3 pointer in the waning moments of the game, only to have the points taken off the board because Luis Scola was called for a foul on Andrei Kirilenko. At first glance, it looked like Scola did commit the foul (because you are watching Jackson shoot, you only see the play out of the corner of your eye). Upon another glance, however, it is clear that Scola barely touches Kirilenko…and then Andrei flails about as if he’s been punched in the chest by Ed Hochuli and the Incredible Hulk at the same time.
Is flopping just a part of the game that fans, refs, and players are going to have to adjust to? I don’t think so. The NBA needs to put a stop to it, and I think they can. I don’t have a problem with a guy exaggerating a bit when he is taking a charge. What I’m talking about is the away-from-the-ball antics that sneaky players employ. They know the refs have their focus elsewhere, so they put on a huge show to force the ref to blow the whistle. I don’t care how corny it sounds…it’s just not in the spirit of the game.
If I was David Stern, I would put something in place to allow the league to penalize players for flopping. Take a stand to keep it from becoming a permanent part of the game. Let them know that all games will be reviewed for “flagrant flopping” and that it will be up to the league’s discretion to penalize players for it. First offense will result in a warning, second offense will result in a 1-game suspension, and so on. Define Flagrant Flopping as “a deliberate attempt by a player to deceive the referee into thinking a foul was committed when overwhelming evidence exists little or no contact was made”.
The only other good suggestion I’ve heard of is to charge the flopping player with a foul. In theory I like this notion, but I don’t think it would work well at the speed of an NBA game. You’d be forcing referees to make split-second decisions on whether or not Manu Ginobili just took an elbow to the chin, or if it missed him by 3 inches and he pretended to get clocked. That would be a tough call for a ref to make.
There needs to be some penalty to discourage players from flopping or it is going to continue happening, and if I’m David Stern, I would be very concerned about it. For a sport like the NBA, which is a distant third in popularity in this country, the little things that can be done to improve the game SHOULD be done. Players should be winning games with their basketball talent, like Manu Ginobili did in Game 1 of their series on Saturday, not with their acting talent, like Andrei Kirilenko did last night against the Houston Rockets.
MEMO TO DAVID STERN: Fans don’t tune in to playoff basketball to see sneaky players affect the outcome of games by pretending to be fouled away from the ball. And if you’re not careful, they will tune out because of it.
Tags: basketball, Flopping
So, professional basketball is back. Some of you care. Many of you don’t.
