NBA allowing floppers to fall down on the job

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http://www.statesman.com/sports/cont...svc=7&cxcat=54
NBA allowing floppers to fall down on the job
Thursday, June 07, 2007

Flop: to cause to drop noisily and clumsily.

That's Webster's definition.

I bet he never went down like he was shot when a guy half his size bumped into him.

Here's a more pertinent definition of flop: the act of duping a basketball official into calling a foul on an opponent by crashing to the floor, even if there is only minimal contact.

Remember the good old days when you knew an offensive foul when you saw one? When it mattered that the defensive guy had to get his feet set before the guy he was guarding made contact? When the league didn't need that weird arc in the middle of the lane to determine an offensive foul from a block?

After Detroit's Antonio McDyess was ejected for clothes-lining Cleveland's Anderson Varejao in the first quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, some observers, notably TNT analyst Reggie Miller (a great flopper in his day), accused the second-year forward of overselling the foul to the refs.

What further proof did you need that it wasn't a legitimate call? Did you need to see Varejao's head taken off and rolling across the floor toward the Detroit bench?

The better explanation: everybody hates a flopper.

Compared to fellow flop artist Manu Ginobili and Texas ex Daniel Gibson, the 6-foot-10-inch Varejao is the least visible of the second-round draft choices who are making the right kind of noise in the postseason, unless you count his hairdo, which bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Sideshow Bob's. While he's not known as a big scorer, Varejao does two things well. One is rebound (he averages 6.1 boards in only 21.8 minutes); the other is flop.

Tim Duncan did not want to talk about the four-letter word beginning with F that could lead to fouls and frustration over the next two weeks of the Finals. That is, if Varejao gets his way.

"I'm not going to start in that direction this early in the series," Duncan said. "I'll save that for a couple of games."

In a league that protects its scorers the way a mother hen protects her eggs, defensive players have to use everything at their disposal. The league's most exciting players — Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade — are accustomed to visiting the free-throw line anywhere from eight to 15 times a night, some of their freebies coming after minimal contact. While the stars are sure to get what's known as reputation calls, a flopper gets treated by road fans like a doofus who threw a first-grader's layup attempt into the bleachers at a father-son game.

No flopology would be accurate without mentioning some good, old school artists like Karl Malone, Miller and Dennis Rodman, along with the new breed — Varejao, Ginobili, Utah's Derek Fisher and the current king of fake collisions, Phoenix Suns guard Raja Bell. But the father of flop has to be Vlade Divac.

If there was an Oscar given to the NBA's greatest flopper, Divac would be Meryl Streep. In his seven seasons with Sacramento, Divac earned his money by banging in the paint with the mammoth Shaquille O'Neal, who spent more time on the court and less time in the buffet line back then.

Divac was 7-1, 260 pounds but was physically no match for the 7-1, 330- to 380-pound O'Neal (his weight depended on the season) so he devised a strategy of sticking his chin into O'Neal's wheelhouse and violently flailing backward when Shaq went to the bucket. Sometimes he got hit, many times he didn't. Divac even admitted to flopping and took to blowing kisses to the home fans whenever he got away with it.

Divac is retired now but the flop is gaining momentum throughout the league. Even Nets' backup center Jason Collins is getting calls now. So in an attempt to cut down on the growing flopocrisy in its game, the NBA could be a stepping a forward to revolutionize its game with ... you guessed it, flop legislation.

Stu Jackson, the league's executive vice president of basketball operations, is actually considering the idea of penalizing problem floppers, an idea implemented by FIBA three years ago. The rule gives international basketball referees the freedom to slap floppers with technical fouls.

Former player Cedric Maxwell said floppers were dealt with severely in the 1980s.

"You stepped on them or you fell on top of them," he told the Arizona Republic. "That's what they need to do today. That would make guys think twice about it."

If the FIBA model is adopted, we may see a trend where offensive players will start trying to draw flops from defenders to get them whistled for technical fouls.

Guess that would be called flip flopping.


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[ambchang]

Fair article, and it alluded to the NBA is favouring offensive players by not calling legitimate charges that the defenders are forced to flop to gain an advantage.
And of course, there never would have been flopping if the refs were competent.

[Obstructed_View]

Yet it's amazing how often we need replay to say whether a play is a charge or a block, and they get it right more often than not with only one shot at it.

[Phenomanul]

No flopology would be accurate without mentioning some good, old school artists like Karl Malone, Miller and Dennis Rodman, along with the new breed — Varejao, Ginobili, Utah's Derek Fisher and the current king of fake collisions, Phoenix Suns guard Raja Bell. But the father of flop has to be Vlade Divac.


Suns fan: "No he didn't..... Raja, our best perimeter defender???.. Ginobili is Lucifer incarnate, not Raja why can he not see that? The league is out to get us!!!"

[ambchang]

Yet it's amazing how often we need replay to say whether a play is a charge or a block, and they get it right more often than not with only one shot at it.
There is no way to prove it, but during games when I watch on TV, which is definitely a worse view than the refs could get, I would get most of the calls "right", if you would say that.
And know that the refs are paid about $200 to 300K to do these sorts of things, plus all the training they get, I don't think it is all that unreasonable for them to call 98% of the calls right, if not 100%.

[Obstructed_View]

There is no way to prove it, but during games when I watch on TV, which is definitely a worse view than the refs could get, I would get most of the calls "right", if you would say that.
And know that the refs are paid about $200 to 300K to do these sorts of things, plus all the training they get, I don't think it is all that unreasonable for them to call 98% of the calls right, if not 100%.
That's ridiculous. They get more calls right than you do or you'd be doing it. You just have the luxury of bitching about it from your couch with nobody keeping track of your mistakes. The refs don't get a slow motion replay with Hubie telling you what to look at.

[twentyone]

It's easy to stop flopping, don't give them the call. If you have to pick yourself up off the floor after you get dunked on a couple of times and not get a call your not going to flop.

If legitimate charges aren't going to be called then stay on your feet and take the charge. They won't make a shot, and it will make it painfully obvious when the charge occurs.

Isn't that exactly the way basketball was back in the day?

[michaelwcho]

You can't give a T for flopping. It's impossible. You may not see the contact, but he maybe he caught a fast elbow or got poked in the eye. The best way is just to make a point of emphasis to not call so many offensive fouls.

[Obstructed_View]

The best way is for teams to not commit so many offensive fouls. When you get out of control or you lower your shoulder you are going to get tagged.

[TheSanityAnnex]

"I'm not going to start in that direction this early in the series," Duncan said. "I'll save that for a couple of games."

This is why I respect Duncan the most. He lets his game do the talking.

[spurster]

The refs won't call an offensive charge without the defensive player falling on the floor. The players are forced to sell the foul.

[ambchang]

That's ridiculous. They get more calls right than you do or you'd be doing it. You just have the luxury of bitching about it from your couch with nobody keeping track of your mistakes. The refs don't get a slow motion replay with Hubie telling you what to look at.
I know it sounds ridiculous the way I say it, because seriously, I get a good % of the charges just looking at it the first time. I have absolutely no proof of that, and I can't justify that. But to me, if a ref is getting paid that amount of $, with that level of training, they SHOULD get most of the calls right, and they don't.
No, I am not better at reffing games than they are, because I am not paid to do it. But I am saying that the quality of referees have been in steady decline in the last decade or so. Possibly because I am in the "the old days are always better" mode, but when I pull tapes of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and watch those games, the referees were consistent throughout the game, without the current "sometimes it's a foul, other times it's not" crap.

EDIT: By saying "most of the calls right" I am saying close to 100%.

[twentyone]

A good example of inconsistency in play calling occurs on offensive fouls/blocking fouls. Just in this run I've seen several games where the defender set his feet outside the line, got hit, and foul was called on the defender, then just a few seconds later same thing and it's not called, or his feet are in, or so on.

It's ridiculous that they either have sub rules for feet inside or outside the line, or they just plain don't make the same call the same way everytime. It shows the disparity in the play calling from one end of the floor to the other.

[Obstructed_View]

A good example of inconsistency in play calling occurs on offensive fouls/blocking fouls. Just in this run I've seen several games where the defender set his feet outside the line, got hit, and foul was called on the defender, then just a few seconds later same thing and it's not called, or his feet are in, or so on.

It's ridiculous that they either have sub rules for feet inside or outside the line, or they just plain don't make the same call the same way everytime. It shows the disparity in the play calling from one end of the floor to the other.
The thing is, you don't have to have your feet set in order to draw a charge. In fact, you don't even have to be outside the circle to draw a charge. You can be moving any direction when drawing a charge so long as the offensive player initiates the contact. In addition, you typically have to take the contact in the center of your chest or else it's a block. There are two factors making it more difficult for officials. First is the "no charge" zone, which makes the officials look at a guy's feet instead of at the play as a whole, and there are the guys who run under a player and get their feet set while falling. Steve Nash and Darrell Armstrong are great at that. Many times those defenders would have fallen down had there been no contact. That's hard to judge in real time.


^that is were the "conspiracy" comes into play.I agree. Fans who are ignorant of the rules don't see the reasons that one play is called one way and another isn't.