Watch any college basketball game and within a couple minutes, you will see a defender flop when an opposing player drives towards the basket for a shot. The referee will blow the whistle and either call a charging foul on the offense or blocking foul on the defense. Usually the call goes against the offensive players.
Many of these fouls are called because the defender falls to the ground when any contact is drawn, no matter how minimal the contact is. This act is changing how the game is being played.
Flopping is a deliberate act to draw fouls on the offense. Many times you will see a guard penetrating to the hoop and then the defender attempting to get in front of the player to draw the charge. Not even putting his hands up to attempt a blocked shot, but keeping his hands down and then falling back when the player makes contact.
A lot of flopping is taking place late in games in attempt to get players in foul trouble so they won’t play as aggressive in fear of fouling out late in the ball game.
What needs to be done is to have flopping eliminated from the game entirely. Charging/blocking fouls are judgment calls and can sometimes be called incorrectly.
If the defender is in the lane and holds his position when a player drives to the basket too aggressive, then it should be a charge, but when the defender runs underneath a player already in the air, it should be an intentional foul since the defender was not making an effort to contest the shot. This should deter some players from overselling the contact made by flopping when the opposing team gets two foul shots and the ball back.
Now it’s probably a long shot to have flopping be a thing of the past, but wouldn’t you love to watch a basketball game and not have to see all the phantom fouls?
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