David Stern, NBA to Implement Flopping Penalties This Season

David Stern and the NBA will begin fining players for perceived "flops" this upcoming season. The league has been working on the details of how to regulate such a rule since mid-June. Now we have the details.

As Ira Winderman reports:

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“Flopping” will be defined as any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player. The primary factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would reasonably be expected given the force or direction of the contact.

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Per Howard Beck of the New York Times, flopping penalties will be levied by the league office, ranging from a warning to a maximum fine of $30,000. 

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NBA just announced new anti-flopping policy: Warning for 1st violation, $5k fine on 2nd, then $10k, $15k and $30k on subsequent violations

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeckNYT) October 3, 2012"

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Back in June during the 2012 NBA Finals, David Stern addressed the media in a press conference and stated that flopping "shouldn't have a place in our game."

More recently, the NBA Executive VP of Basketball Operations, Stu Jackson, had this to say:

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"Flops have no place in our game. They either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call. Accordingly, both the Board of Governors and the Competition Committee felt strongly that any player who the league determines, following video review, to have committed a flop should -- after a warning -- be given an automatic penalty."

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Now that we have the official league definition of what a flop is and the measure by which players will be disciplined, the question shifts to who will be the first to be fined? And who will get fined the most?

By the process of elimination, we can use statistics to determine the players who have the greatest odds. The players who consistently try to draw the most charges will, by instinct, put themselves in the position to draw flopping penalties more often than others. Using this as a barometer, we can conclude that players like Grant Hill, Derek Fisher, Glen Davis and Manu Ginobili, among others, will have the greatest risk of drawing warnings and fines.

Who do you think will be the first player to get hit with a flopping fine?

Leave your thoughts and predictions in the comments below.

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