Sixers

NBA Approves Anti-Flopping Measure

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 13th, 2023 · 9:11 AM EDT

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Tim Bontemps at ESPN:

The NBA’s board of governors approved two rule changes that will go into effect next season — a second coach’s challenge if the first one is successful and an in-game flopping penalty…

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…Now, when a referee calls a flop, there will be a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul called on the offending players’ team, and the opposing team will get a free throw. Referees also won’t have to stop play to call a flop, as they can wait until the next stop in live action, if needed, to make the call.

Possession will not change, however, and flopping violations can’t be directly reviewed by a coach’s challenge. They can, however, be added to a call during a review of a different play.

This is what they do in soccer, which has had a flopping epidemic since the beginning of time. Refs are trained to issue yellow cards for embellishment, which can come immediately if the play results in a stoppage, or they can do back on the next dead ball and show the card. They installed this rule primarily to cut down on diving in the box, in search of cheap penalty kicks.

In this case, NBA refs can give Boston a free throw and hand a tech to Miami when Kyle Lowry does this:

This Kyle Lowry flop is just sad 😂#Celtics pic.twitter.com/uGfZr4CWno

— Tony Clements (@TonyCMKE) May 28, 2022

It’s a good change, and a necessary one. Flopping has only gotten worse in basketball. Embellishing contact, pretending like you got shot by a sniper in the stands, etc. Anything in that family of hardwood chicanery. And it goes hand in hand with the “Trae Young rule” change of 2021, when the NBA outlawed leaning into defenders and contact-seeking from offensive players.

Both of these updates get us back to playing basketball instead of trying to job the refs and game the system.