NBA weighing retroactive penalties for floppers

[Prince]

MIAMI -- David Stern is determined to stop the floppers, even if it takes until the next morning.

The NBA commissioner believes too many players are deceiving referees into calling fouls by falling down, or flopping. So he and the league's newly reformed competition committee met Monday for a discussion about how it can be prevented.

One option, Stern said, is a "postgame analysis" in which a player could be penalized if it was determined he flopped. The league retroactively upgrades or downgrades flagrant fouls after review, and along those lines he said that perhaps a player could receive a message from New York saying: "Greetings from the league office. You have been assigned flopper status."

"No, I'm joking, but something like that," Stern said. "That sort of lets people know that it's not enough to say 'it's all part of the game.'"

The committee is made up of coaches Doc Rivers of Boston, Rick Carlisle of Dallas and Lionel Hollins of Memphis; owners Dan Gilbert of Cleveland and Joe Lacob of Golden State, and general managers Bryan Colangelo of Toronto, Sam Presti of Oklahoma City, Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers and Kevin O'Connor of Utah.

During a 6-hour meeting, they also discussed expanding instant replay for flagrant fouls and goaltending, decided the lottery system is the best one currently available, and seemed to favor leaving the away from the ball foul rule as is, so coaches could continue to intentionally foul notoriously bad free throw shooters.

Any rules changes they recommend would have to be approved by the league's Board of Governors, set for its next meeting in July.

Stern hopes by then to have a policy to address flopping, which bothers him because he feels it tricks the referees. He said there's a "broad array of issues" to look at that can let players know the practice is to be discouraged.

"If you continue to do this, you may you have to suffer some consequences," he said. "What those exactly should be and what the progression is is to be decided, because ... we just want to put a stake in the ground that says this is not something that we want to be part of our game, without coming down with a sledgehammer but just doing it in a minimalist way to begin stamping it out. And I think there are ways we can do that and we'll have to wait and see exactly what we come up with."

Stern has talked of allowing replay on all flagrants. Referees currently can only look at the more severe flagrant-2 penalties to determine if they indeed warranted ejection or should be downgraded to flagrant-1s. He has said he is intrigued by the international goaltending rules, which allow a defensive player to knock the ball off the rim.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/80...lties-floppers

[Dre]

You need to write headlines because this definitely is misleading. I thought this was some 2 years back agenda shit, more like if you flop excessively/notably you'll get a fine for it in a day or two, just like a flagrant or talking about the ref. I don't know that those would be considered retroactive penalties.

[Prince]

Meh

[Dre]

Looks like you're just bored with the site altogether

[R-Star]

Good. I'd like to see something come of this.

[PauloCatarino]

Post-game punishment for flopping just seems retarded.

If the refs aren't doing their job, what would be the use of this "punishment"? And will they broad the thing to "punish" walks, travels, goaltendings, etc., that weren't called by the refs?

[R-Star]

Originally Posted by PauloCatarino

Post-game punishment for flopping just seems retarded.

If the refs aren't doing their job, what would be the use of this "punishment"? And will they broad the thing to "punish" walks, travels, goaltendings, etc., that weren't called by the refs?

No? They'll just keep it for punishing floppers.

James Harden falls to the ground holding his eye like it was poked out after contact under the basket by Ginobili. When the play happened it was out of nowhere and I thought Manu stuck his finger in Hardens eye. But on replay it shows Manu grazed his neck, nowhere near his eye.

So me watching the game with both Harden and Gino focused on camera under the net I had no idea what actually happened. Just like the refs. It happened fast and Harden sold it well. To try and act like the refs didn't do their job there is ridiculous.

I'm all for the league coming out a day or two after that and giving Harden a fine, telling him to go **** himself with bullshit flopping like that. Its a disgrace to the league.

[E.H. Munro]

Who in the league office is reading this forum? I could have sworn we discussed this very solution last year some time.

[Dre]

I think he has a database with every mention of his name...

[R-Star]

Originally Posted by Dre

I think he has a database with every mention of his name...

What, are you saying hes egotistical or something?

[Laker Freak]

This is the exact suggestion I had a while back this. It looks like the league realizes that they need to clean up the flopping but also know that the refs can't be trusted to monitor it during games.

[RollWithEm]

Great idea. Now let's see if it's ever put into practice.

[e-monk]

During a 6-hour meeting, they also discussed expanding instant replay for flagrant fouls and goaltending, decided the lottery system is the best one currently available, and seemed to favor leaving the away from the ball foul rule as is, so coaches could continue to intentionally foul notoriously bad free throw shooters.

huh - price waterhouse some shit up would be better me thinks

[King Sancho Fantastic]

We should bet on who the first player is to get flop fined!

Dibs on Harden!!