Union leaves players defenseless over NBA's new flopping finesBasketball's biggest flopper Billy Hunter left his players unprotected and unprepared again on Wednesday, failing to warn the union membership against what turned out to be a coast-to-coast embracing of a league-mandated fine system. This is how sadly disorganized and defeated the players are: In a continuation of the lockout ass-kicking delivered the Players Association, NBA commissioner David Stern had players coast to coast offering him a standing ovation for digging deeper into their pockets.
Yes, flopping needs to be curtailed and punished, but a system of arbitrary fines passed down out of Stern's office for violators on film is ridiculous. The NBA is essentially conceding that its officials don't have the competence to call flopping in the flow of the game, so Stern decides that the players will be punished financially for it.
For all the magnificent benefits of the NBA's globalization of basketball, there came with it a soccer culture of flopping. It infiltrated the sport on every level, because Stern and the officials let it go unchecked for too long. What's more, some coaches started to use it as a tool with defensively challenged players. When the NBA could've administered technical fouls on floppers, Stern felt empowered enough to do something that sports have mostly done only in the justifiable instances of violent or uncivil behavior: fine players for it.
He certainly brings up a good point, though I'm still not big on the idea of T'ing up players for flopping. With the "two techs and you're out" rule in place, erroneous flopping calls would have key players getting tossed left and right, not to mention the game slowing down for all those free throws. Woj calls it conceding incompetence and there's probably some truth to that, but it's also admitting simple human error and limitations. Unless they check the replay on every single foul call, they're not going to get it right every time. That's not to say they shouldn't try and can't improve, but perfection is an unrealistic expectation.
I'm hoping the crackdown on flopping
will go beyond fines though, to the point where blatant flopping isn't rewarded. At one end, non-calls that leave a flopping defender out of the play and his team at a disadvantage. At the other, non-calls that leave a flailing offensive player putting up a bad shot while trying to create contact for a shooting foul. On top of that, they're going to have to hit star players with that treatment, too. Combine that with players' wallets taking a hit and I think we'll see a decrease in flopping.