A Farewell to Arms (Flying in the Air Wildly) in the NBA

Senior Analyst Written on January 22, 2009

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The NBA has been pushing, quite successfully, to become a world attraction similar to soccer.

One unintended consequence of this ambition is that some of the negative aspects of international play seep into league. Vlade Divac has been dubbed the grandfather of flopping, since then the cancer has spread.

Even the reality blind league has recently recognized that flopping has had a negative impact on the NBA. Supposedly 2009 is the year they crack down on players who obviously manipulate the referees.

To date not one fine has been handed down from David Stern for pretending to be fouled. Hopefully the future of the NBA actually moves away from giving in to whiners and actors.

The following slide is a tribute to the finest international players who were raised in a culture of Futbol are the primary source of flopping, whining, faking injury, complaining about calls, and generally manipulating the rules and officials to favor their team.

In golf, where we call penalties on ourselves, this is called cheating.

Dirk Nowitzki

Look Familiar?

Gordon Giricek

Fighting fire with fire?

Manu Ginobili

Andris Biedrins

Kobe Bryant

I know, Kobe is not technically an international player, but he does play soccer and lived in Italy as a child.

Pau Gasol

Mehmet Okur

Peja Stojakovic

This list is certainly not complete, just off the top of my head. I also realize that some of the worst offenders are American—Allen Iverson comes to mind.

Please feel free to add your least favorite in the comments section.

Begin Slideshow

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written on January 22, 2009 Sports

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