5 Ways the NBA Can Put an End to Flopping

This week, David Stern will meet with his Competition Committee—an appointed group of owners, general managers and coaches—to discuss new rules, including those that address the problem of flopping.

Flopping is the “it” word in the NBA these days, as fans and players raise the volume on their complaints about the on-court trickery—the cowardice, if we’re being frank—that has made the game less enjoyable to play and to watch.

Has the problem gotten worse in recent years? 

There’s no way to quantify it. The dialogue about flopping has certainly become more prominent, however, and the league has too much going for it to let that dialogue undermine its product. 

With that in mind, here are five fixes the NBA should implement to keep flopping in check. 

Implement Video Review

This one is a no-brainer.

The NBA has become too fast and too athletic to catch all of the action in the moment. And when it comes to flopping, referees would benefit from video sessions to determine when (and by whom) they were tricked into blowing the whistle.

By re-watching games with an eye toward flopping, they could acquaint themselves with flopping technique and frequent offenders. This will enable them to come up plans to keep each game flop-free in advance of the opening tip.   

Target Repeat Offenders, Players and Refs

Chris Paul, James Harden, Derek Fisher, LeBron James, Blake Griffin and Shane Battier.

We know who the worst floppers are, and the league does too. Now it's time that they do something to keep repeated offenders in check.

The same way that accumulated technicals can lead to suspension, the league needs a point system for flops. After a player is caught taking a dive, say, 10 times, they should be forced to sit a game.

Likewise, refs who bail floppers out should be tracked with their own point system. After 10 such calls, they would be skipped over for a game assignment, with no pay.

Flopping can't be fixed until all parties involved get hit in the wallet, and suffer a little embarrassment to boot.  

Assess Technicals

In addition to retroactive sanctions, floppers must be penalized in-game for leaving their feet unnecessarily. It’s the only way to prevent trickery from affecting the outcome of games.

Of course, referees can't punish all of the flops, nor should they try.

Technicals should only be assessed in the most egregious cases where anyone with common sense and knowledge of high school physics can see that a man could not have been pushed to the ground so easily.

In these cases, the offending player’s team should be penalized with a turnover and a free throw for the opposing team. These calls won't swing a game, but they are enough of a deterrent that floppers will think twice about hitting the decks.

Virtually Eliminate Charge Calls on Post-Up Possessions

The worst flops come on post up possessions where the defender falls as soon as the offensive player initiates contact.  

This negative effects of this particular flop are both immediate and cumulative.

In real time, the defender is rewarded for his deceit on that possession. And cumulatively, post-play, already a dying art, suffers when players are punished for using their size and strength to their advantage.

Anyone whose played pick-up ball knows how difficult it is for a player with his knees bent, and feet planted, to be bowled over—even by a much bigger player. Injecting this reality into the NBA is crucial to preserving the integrity of the game. 

Add a Fourth, Specialized Ref

Watching ten of the world’s quickest athletes in real time has become too arduous for a three-man team.

The NBA should add an additional referee to game crews, one whose chief responsibility is to assess whether fouls are real or theatrical.

Calling flops will never be a science, but if said referee were coached by physicists, or professionals otherwise trained in how one moving object impacts another, we’d be that much closer to rooting deception out of a game that’s become increasingly difficult to officiate on the fly.