NBA Will Test In-Game Flopping Penalty During 2023 Summer League

The NBA is taking steps towards fixing its flopping problem.

The league is testing an In-Game Flopping Penalty during summer-league games in Utah, Sacramento and Las Vegas.

The NBA Board of Governors is set to vote on the rule on July 11, so implementing it on a provisional basis during these exhibition games is a good opportunity to see how it plays out.

The base penalty for a called flop is a free throw for the opposing team and possession. The infraction is looked at as a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul and does not count towards a players personal foul total or potentially lead to an ejection. It also does not have to signal an end to a live play and can be assessed when the ball is dead.

This is not the first step the league has taken to address embellishment issues. The league created an anti-flopping rule in 2012 that sent a warning to a player who commits a flop, and any further infractions would result in fines that increase in value with every additional flop. The key difference with this adjustment is the in-game penalty, which means that these infractions could negatively impact a team's chance to win.

The league defined a flop as "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." before the original rule was put in place in 2012.