By Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel –
MIAMI — The NBA is now a no-flop zone. The price for acting? Up to a $30,000 fine, and possibly even a suspension, according to a new league policy announced Wednesday.
No, NBA Commissioner David Stern was not kidding around when he said he wanted to take acting out of the equation when it came to attempts to deceive his referees.
Get caught on video review the first time for embellishing contact and there will be a warning. And then it’s into the pocketbook, with fines ranging from $5,000 for the second infraction to $30,000 for the fifth, with the added threat of a possible suspension thereafter.
To a degree, bad acting just became more expensive in the NBA that bad behavior, with technical fouls starting at a mere $2,000 apiece in a sliding scale that rises to $5,000 for the 16th such citation.
Of course, technical fouls also can impact the outcome of games, with free throws awarded. All flopping review will come after the fact, with no in-game penalty. A league spokesman told the Sun Sentinel he does not expect the NBA to make public the determination of each individual violation.
So what is a flop? The NBA provided its formal definition Wednesday:
“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.”
However, in the statement, the NBA also said, “Physical acts that constitute legitimate basketball plays (such as moving to a spot in order to draw an offensive foul) and minor physical reactions to contact will not be treated as flops.”
The new policy has received mixed reviews from the Heat.
On one hand, the Heat, lacking a true shot-blocker in the majority of their lineups, often defend with their feet, with forwards Udonis Haslem and Shane Battier among the best in the league at drawing charges. Battier already has spoken out against the increased inspection.
On the other hand, coach Erik Spoelstra said such attempts to draw charges through positioning are not the focus of the new edict and that the Heat long have dissuaded players from embellishing contact.
“Anybody that thinks that flopping comes from help-side charges, they’re getting the concept of the flop incorrectly,” he said. “It’s my opinion, what makes the game look bad is when you try to trick the referee on the ball, and you’re flopping, you’re jerking your head.
“When you’re making a help-side rotation and putting your body in there, there is either contact or there is not. And if you’re getting run over, you’re getting run over.”
Of course, prior to last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, Pacers coach Frank Vogel called the Heat, “the biggest flopping team in the NBA,” adding, “often times they’re falling down before contact is even made.”
Spoelstra does not expect his players to get caught up in the new fine schedule or any of the rhetoric.
“We hammer our guys to teach our guys not to do that,” he said. “Of course, every team has players that do it, and sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don’t. … And when you’re busy jerking your head, to bail out, to get a call, you’re not concentrating on what is needed.
“We’ve had an emphasis for years of not to flop in those situations.”
For his part, Heat forward LeBron James embraces the approach now that he more frequently is being cast in a power role.
“I think it’d be good in the paint, though, when you’re posting guys up and guys know they’re smaller than, you just take one bump and they already know before you even touch them the next time they’re going to just automatically fall,” he said. “So they can clean that up in the paint, so that could be good. We’ll see what happens.”
