By: Martin Rand, III
Date: November 6, 2012
Well, this didn't take too long. After only a week into the new season, the NBA has decided to enforce its new Anti-Flopping Rule. The two culprits in question: J.J. Barea and Donald Sloan, who both received warnings for their first time offense of flopping.
If you're asking yourself who are these players, you're probably not the only one. Barea is most notable for helping the Dallas Mavericks win the NBA Title in 2011. He turned that amazing playoff run into a long-term contract offered by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the off-season. Sloan has played for three different teams in only his two years in the league. For now, he plays with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Prime Examples
I know. You still have no idea who these players are. So, it's not surprising that the league chose these two players to punish first as opposed to a bigger name player.
I watched just about every national televised game during the NBA premiere week last week; and I refuse to believe that these are the only two players that violated the new flopping policy.
According to the NBA website, the anti-flopping policy states "A 'flop' is an attempt to either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call by exaggerating the effect of contact with an opposing player.
The main factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would have been expected given the force or direction of the contact. For example, a player will be considered to have committed a 'flop' if he falls to the floor following minimal contact or lunges in a direction different from the direction of the contact."
So, out of the approximately 450 players and 40 games played in the NBA, Barea and Sloan are the only players to exhibit this sort of behavior.
In the words of ESPN NFL Analyst Chris Carter, C'MON MAN!
I hate everything about flopping and I'm glad the league is trying to get rid of it, but, unless they come down hard and heavy on ALL the players, it won't happen. This means superstars, all-stars, bench players and no names have to be held to the same standard or players and coaches are just going to laugh whenever a penalty is dished out.
Yes, Barea and Sloan committed obvious flops, but so did a lot of other players around the league. Take a look at Houston Rockets newly acquired guard James Harden play against the Atlanta Hawks.
Selling The Play For Profit
There was a certain play, where he came off a pick-and-roll, began to drive to the basket then stopped at the corner of the square for a pull-up jumpshot. The Hawks defender then leaped from behind to try and block the shot, but he missed and Harden made the basket. To add insult to injury, Harden fell to the floor after receiving a light tap on the wrist well after the shot was released, and the referee called the Hawks defender for a foul.
Is that not flopping? I don't understand how a tap on the wrist can cause a person's legs to give out from under them.
However, this is just one of the plays. I can't even count the number of phantom charges, dribbler neck jerking and body flails that defied the laws of physic I saw last week.
According to TNT NBA Broadcaster Reggie Miller, everything that appears to be flop is not actually a flop.
"That's called selling the play," said Miller during a live broadcast of a game last week. "He's not flopping, he's just selling the play."
Honestly, I would love for Miller to explain the difference because the league failed to mention the "selling the play clause" in the policy statement.
The truth of the matter is that Barea and Sloan are just being made examples. They are relatively nobodies in the NBA, playing for bad teams; so it won't cause a huge media uproar, but just enough to put the other players on notice that something could happen.
This is the wrong way to go about eradicating the sport of this disease.
Relaxed Penalties Equal More Flopping
Maybe the league doesn't want to get rid of flopping. Maybe they only want to give the appearance that want to get rid of it.
If the league truly wanted to get rid of flopping, wouldn't they use harsher penalties? Right now, it takes a total of five infractions on the rule to get a player "possibly" suspended from a game. The first violation is a warning, then violations 2-5 are minimal fines totaling $60,000.
For NBA players, $60,000 isn't a lot of money. This season, Barea is set to make $4.5 million and Sloan will earn $762,000. So, even if they get up to the fifth violation their bank accounts won't be hit hard at all.
Of course, for a superstar, their pockets are much deeper; so they too could care less about losing a potential $60,000 if it meant helping their team win.
The NBA average salary is $5 million. So, if the fines aren't comparable to what the players are earning, who's really going to care about breaking the rule.
Either increase the fine or create another penalty as punishment. ESPN NBA Analyst Jalen Rose feels penalites should happen in game.
Technical fouls or some other in-game penalty would be immediate and really hit home with players that the league doesn't want flopping on the court anymore.
According the league, they don't want to put that responsibility of judging flopping on the referees. However, they judge everything else about the game so I don't see what's so different.
Only time will tell if this new anti-flopping policy achieves its intended purpose. So far, two players warned have been warned, and we'll see how many more warnings and fines are to come.
Although, if nothing changes from what I saw last week, that number should be huge.
Image Credit: Raw Signal Basketball
