NBA competition committee meets to discuss flopping and other issues – NBA News
NBA Commissioner David Stern sat down with the recently reformed competition committee on Monday in order to tackle some pressing issues.
The commish had made some comments regarding flopping a few weeks back and had said that he wanted to exterminate it from the league as it tricks the referees. Stern had also stated that the issue of flopping in NBA games would
be the top priority in the next meeting of the competition commission and as promised, the issue was discussed in the 6 hour long meeting.
One of the options discussed to discourage flopping was a “post game analysis” after which a player could be penalized if he was found cheating or faking a foul.
The NBA already upgrades or downgrades flagrant fouls after reviews, and a similar procedure could be jotted up for flopping.
The committee also discussed the option of expanding instant replays on flagrant fouls and decided that the lottery system was the best available one at the moment.
The ‘away from ball foul’ was also discussed but members agreed that it should be left the way it is. The away ball foul allows teams to foul players who are not good shooters in crunch time to stop the game clock and have an opportunity
to get another possession in the attempt of winning the game.
Stern said that he feels bad for the player who is fouled in case he is not a good free throw shooter like Shaquille O’Neal, but at the same time wants to give coaches the options of fouling the poor shooter in close games as he
feels that if a player is not a good shooter, he should not be in the line up in the closing minutes.
"It's fair to say there was a strong sense that we shouldn't cut down on the toolbox that coaches have available to them, despite what may seem the unseemliness of the way it goes down. But that's just one of the things that you
do if you want to win and it works,” said Stern.
Stern said after the meeting that the issue of replays for flagrant fouls also came under discussion, and the committee was pondering over whether replays should be allowed for flagrant 1 fouls as well. At the moment, referees
can only watch replays for the more severe flagrant 2 fouls to see if they need to be downgraded.
Any decision that the committee makes needs to be approved by the NBA’s board of governors. They are next scheduled to meet in July and Stern says that he hopes of having a solution to the issue of flopping by then.
The competition committee was made up of coaches Doc Rivers of Boston, Lionel Hollins of Memphis and Rick Carlisle of Dallas, along with team owners Dan Gilbert of Cleveland and Joe Lacob of Golden State. There were also general
managers Bryan Colangelo of Toronto, Mitch Kupchak of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin O’Connor of Utah and Sam Presti of Oklahoma City.
Tags: