NBA hands out first warnings to two players for flopping during games – NBA News
The NBA has issued out its first warning to players over flopping, with J.J. Barea of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Donald Sloan of the Cleveland Cavaliers being the first two beneficiaries.
Flopping is acting out a response that is more than what the normal play would cause in order to fool the referee to call a foul in your favour. After many players were criticized last season for flopping, and it took centre position in discussions around the league, the NBA decided to initiate a game review process in which a play that looks doubtful would later be reviewed by league officials and if a flopping incident was found, the player would be penalized.
Barea was playing defence with 10:04 left in the game when he took a hand to the face off Jimmer Fredette. He threw his arms up and got the foul against Fredette. Similarly, Sloan was caught up trying to defend in the open and got his legs tangled up with Bulls centre Nazr Mohammed, going crashing to the floor after which the referee called the foul in his favour.
Many players have criticized the new rules being implemented by the league to curtail flopping, saying that video review is not the way to go as officials sitting far away from the action cannot determine whether a flop has been committed, and that in game officials are the best people to catch a flop play. Wolves Head Coach Rick Adelman also came out strongly against the new rule after his player, Barea, was handed out a warning for flopping.
“I’ve said it before, I think it's something that they can certainly look at, but I don't know how anybody thousands of miles away on TV can tell if somebody gets hit or not hit. I think anybody here, if somebody does that to you, you're gonna flinch ... and he got hit,” said Adelman.
“The play that they're talking about, the guy hit him in the face and he got called for a foul. I don't understand how he could get a warning foul. I just think it seems like our officials are supposed to be the best in the world, and they should be able to tell if somebody gets hit or he's faking it,” added the coach.
According to the new penalties, the first offence will result with a warning followed by a $5000 fine for a second offence and a $10,000 fine for a third offence. The fine goes up to $15,000 for a fourth offence and $30,000 for the fifth offence.
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