Since when does either Morrison or Williams play in Euroleague? Morrison plays in Adriatic League, not Euroleague. He scored 30 in one game, 3 in another. He is averaging 16.5 in 4 games. Again, he does NOT play in Euroleague. He plays in a much lower level league.
The flopping thing is a myth. Flopping was banned years ago in the Euroleague. The NBA is the league that allows flopping. It's not even tolerated in Euroleague. For some reason NBA fans believe flopping is something universal to European basketball. It is not. It's just that the NBA not only allows, but actually encourages flopping, and as part of their marketing they claimed it is "European". And I guess they get away with those claims because of football (soccer) diving, and because of the fact that Spanish players do indeed flop. But the Euroleague has no tolerance at all for flopping. Only the best flopper in the world (Navarro) can really get away with flopping in Euroleague, and even then, he often does not get away with it.
Once again your ignorance of the NBA shines through. Please find me one official piece of marketing that claims flopping as "European". It's associated with international players because they far and away outflop non-international players. end of story.
If you really believe this then you have never seen an NBA game, and never seen a Euroleague game in your life. The NBA announcers have been saying the flopping in the NBA "came from Europe" for decades. The Euroleague does not even allow flopping. It is an NBA PRODUCT.
Simulating injuries is more or less a soccer product. Flopping as is, is also a soccer product. The whole flopping things has its roots in the development of soccer in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Before substitutes were allowed, a deliberately caused injury could change matches (like defenders were hunting on star players like Puskas, Pelé, etc) and often these misconducts were allowed or were not punished seriously. Teams who played brutally could get away with it and it was exceptionally dangerous to show too much flair: you could get injured for it. Then FIFA realized that this sucks, so they began to punish more physical plays (aggressive tackling from behind, unnecessary roughness, using the elbow). Most of the rules are protecting the man on the ball and rightly so (we don't want to watch rugby, we want to watch soccer, you know). Now this combined with some other rules (like the penalty rule) and the development of the sport (play has become more and more physical especially on the midfield) led to make flopping a disgusting but possibly advantageous tactic. Especially in the box where a nice flop could result in a game-changing penalty. This has led to the fact that nowadays most of the flopping (and sadly many true fouls) are overlooked and or penalized (with real fouls the wrong way), so basically now the rules are not working again as refs will usually not care about fouls that are non-obvious. This will happen to any sport that a) penalizes too much physicality, b) doesn't penalize flopping as is. There is a way to get rid of this, and it would work especially well in the NBA: there should be post-match reviewal of all the "foul plays". Wherever a non-detected flop happens, the ballclub has to pay fines. The fines should grow progressively on a per season basis. The club could decide to play instead of its players or the players should get their share of the fines. Anyhow: flopping would become much less desirable for teams and players as well, and we wouldn't have to worry about the game getting too physical. The fines would transfer into a fund that a) goes to charity b) the floppingest clubs will pay and the least floppingest clubs will get the money.
In the Euroleague they got rid of flopping simply by imposing a very serious foul penalty win someone flops, and demanding that the refs call it. The penalty causes the team such a problem that the coaches of the Euroleague teams will not tolerate it. The only guy that really gets away with flopping in Euroleague these days is Navarro, but it's just because his flopping ability is on such an unparalleled level. If the NBA did the same thing, imposing 4 foul shots, plus the ball out of bounds for flopping, and having the refs enforce it, rather than rewarding free throws to the guys that flop (as the NBA currently does), then flopping would be just about gone from the NBA very quickly. Once the Euroleague implemented those rules and enforced them, flopping just about completely disappeared from the league for the most part.
So is it your position that the real start of flopping in the NBA in the late 90's/early 00's had nothing to do with the sudden rise of international players coming into the league and gaining prominence? Pure coincidence? Another coincidence that the pioneer of flopping in the NBA was Vlade Divac? Next if rules against is a sign for you saying it has nothing to do with Euroleague and all MBA invented, then what about rule changes the NBA has made - adding the "no flop" zone under the basket and making obvious flopping a fine? If that is your only standard then technically the NBA doesn't allow flopping, either. Regardless, flopping sucks and now Americans and non-Americans alike do it and need to stop.
MJ, Kobe, Reggie miller, Stockton, all those guys are big time flopperes. All the vets and best players call it tricks of the trades adn throw elbows here and there and try to get in their head mentally. Read reggie miller's book, he talks about it and how jordan and all the 'old school' guys do this.
Flopping- I wouldn't necessarily say that modern Euro teams flop more than NBA teams now, but I definitely agree with the notion that it came from overseas players like Vlade Divac, and is re-inforced by the way the games are currently called by the refs in the NBA. NBA players that flop, on offense at least, are really just taking advantage of the way the game is called. Which, I the case of physical contact, always sides with the offensive player to encourage more scoring. FIBA currently has done a good job, from what I have seen in international play, of taking it out of the game with better reffing, and good no calls for flops. I dont necessarily blame European players like Vlade for bringing it over as much as I blame the influence of soccer or football. I myself, am a huge soccer fan, and have played all my life so i can contest for this. As physical as soccer is, the penalties and officiating almost encourage flopping. However, like FIBA basketball, FIFA has done a better job recently at taking out flopping. In the past though, soccer, brought flopping to basketball internationally. I would expect that the new school European players like Jonas V. and Enes Kanter to flop much much less than the old school international players like Scola and Ginobili.
He does not play in the Euroelague either. Morrison, Williams, Scalabrine all play on meaningless clubs and at levels that are basically meaningless also. You are using examples that is like using D-League play in the US as an example. No one in Europe even cares about the games of those teams they play on.
The kind of flopping that Divac and other players do/did in the NBA has never ever been tolerated in the Euroleague. That's totally a creation of David Stern.
Europe ball is not soft, they are just slow and unathletic. Big lumbering basketball, where the bigs shoot from outside...hooray ! DD
If the NBA is so incredibly athletic, why do they need a no hand check rule? Why do they need a defensive 3 seconds rule? Why do they need to have a true full zone defense banned? Why do they need the so-called "superstar ref treatment", where the "superstars" get free trips to the free throw line? If the NBA is so athletic, then why is it the only pro basketball league on planet Earth that has practically outlawed defense by the nature of its rules and how the refs call games? Why is it the ONLY league on Earth that has those rules? Explain it to me. Explain why such great athletes need to play in a league where no hand checking is allowed and where it is illegal to guard the paint area for more than 2.9 seconds? If they were so incredibly athletic, they would not need to have the most pansy candy ass rules of any basketball league in the world. Such great athletes would be able to score, even if someone was allowed to guard the paint for more than 2.9 seconds, and even if you were allowed to defend the perimeter with physicality. Incredibly odd that the entire NBA rules system is handicapped to make it easy for those great athletes to score, by giving them a wide open lane, and by eliminating physical play on the perimeter. If the NBA has such great athletes, not a one of those rules would be needed and there would be no such thing as "star treatment". Also, if the NBA had such great athletes, then a true pure zone defense would not be illegal in the NBA. If the Euroleague had the same rules as the NBA........star calls from refs, no true zone allowed, defensive 3 seconds rule, no hand checking allowed - then the Euroleague would be a non-stop parade of endless dunks and free throws - just like the NBA. Never mind even, the fact that in the Euroleague you are not allowed to travel or palm the ball. While in the NBA, dribbling almost does not even exist anymore........... Amazing how LeBron and Wade get all those dunks, taking 4-5 steps without a dribble, palming the ball, with no hand check, a wide open lane, and the refs bailing them out all game long. Yeah......never been a single player in Europe that could dunk the ball under those same playing conditions........... The NBA is so "athetic" that it had to turn into a cross between a sport and WWE.
OHMSS, quit acting like a dimwit (if that's possible). Athleticism and rules don't always determine each other. The rules control how the game is played and the NBA has determined that no hand-checking, having a defensive 3-seconds rule, etc make the game more entertaining to fans. It allows players on offense to display their athleticism more often. I wouldn't have it any other way. If you don't believe the NBA is more athletic than Euroball, stop doing drugs.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ujeuECGEz48" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Dwill doing just fine.
Westbrook works out with rose every summer does he not? so it does make sense. We can not judge Rondo's jumper until we see it more consistently, how bout we throw you at there and tell you to throw up two maybe three jumpshots in a game... Pierce, Allen and KG are still going to take the majority of the shots in that offense in rightfully so. Rondo penetrates which leaves these guys good looks on the periemeter... I've seen Rondo make some tough shots and miss some easy ones but he's been playing behind three hall of famers in the offense ssooo get off him.
