Flopping pioneer Vlade Divac in action!

Of the many annoying things about the National Basketball Association and the way the professionals play the game–no fouls on stars, no walks, a lot of rules get ignored in favor of fun play–the worst sin has to be flopping.  That is, when a player flails around in an attempt to draw a foul, or make a foul look worse than it really is.  Vlade Divac was one of the pioneers of flopping in the NBA, and the league will have no part of it.  The NBA has created a fine structure for egregious serial floppers, issuing a warning for the first offense, then fines of $5,000 for a second offense, $15,000 for a third, $30,000 for a fifth, and a suspension after a sixth offense.

“Flops have no place in our game —they either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call,” said NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson.  “Accordingly, both the Board of Governors and the competition committee felt strongly that any player who the league determines, following video review, to have committed a flop should — after a warning — be given an automatic penalty.”

Despite the fact the players all seem to welcome the attempt to stop the flops, NBA players union chief Billy Hunter has promised to try to stop the imposition of the fine structure, saying that the NBA cannot simply create a new class of fines without consulting the union. Stopping flopping has become one of David Stern’s big tasks in recent years, and this seems to be a good way to get that ball in motion, even if it’s hard to tell when someone’s exaggerating or when someone is really banged up.

Image:  USA Today

Tags: stu jackson, billy hunter, nba, national basketball association, professional basketball, nba rule change, nba fines, nba adds flopping fines, flopping, nba flopping fines, nba adds flopping penalty, nba to crack down on flopping, fouls, personal fouls, acting, sports, unusual fines, unusual sports crackdowns, vice president of basketball operations, vlade divac

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]