I was just daydreaming about a possible way to put an end to flopping and I've come up with this. How about the NBA imposes a penalty of a technical foul, but at the opponent team's discretion. Meaning, that the flopper does receive a technical on the spot, but the opposing team gets to choose when they get to shoot the free throw. That way they could save it toward the end of games, or during a key stretch of the game, possibly in place of a timeout. This way, the opposing team can use this to their advantage during crucial times, and this would discourage the flopper (Lebron) from pulling his ****. Additionally, I would take it a step further and allow the opposing team to shoot their free throw in future games (if they choose to do so) against the team the flopper is on (during the regular season if the flop occurs during the regular season, and during the playoffs if the flop occurs in the playoffs.) Obviously this will be nullified if they player is traded, etc. Not only will this punish the player, but the team as a whole, and MAYBE....JUST MAYBE...it would inspire coaches to tell their players to quit the whole damn thing altogether. Because we all know "fines" mean nothing to these million-dollar athletes. Of course, it will be up to the team to make the free throw that benefits them. I think this would be very effective in close, precious playoff games. Just a thought. EDIT: As Durvasa pointed out, the league could appoint a fourth league observer to be in charge of this during games, should he be alerted about a possible infraction. This should be timely and immediately. Yes I acknowledge this will still be open to player bias, but this is the best I can come up with at this point. If anything, the players that continually get accused (most likely with justification) will get pointed out and exposed. That, in itself, could possibly act as a deterrence even without the penalty. Let's petition this! Wouldn't it be cool if Clutchfans alone could put an end to Lebron and CP3's antics! Kinda dramatic....but yeah....dare to dream.
Why not have a fourth league observer (not the ref) who during the game can closely go through the tape and identify such things? Then the ref is notified, and during a timeout they'll double-check the tape and decide whether its blatant enough to warrant a technical foul. If players knew their blatant flops could earn them technicals, and thus cost them actual points in the game and not just money, they'd be far more reluctant to do it.
The League should make public reports like this and keep them in the office for records. This is just an example. Just SOMETHING to hold these athletes accountable: 2013-2014 NBA Flopping Infringement Report Player: Lebron James Team: Miami Heat Date of Violation: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 Opponent: San Antonio Spurs *Current Number of Infractions to Date: 2 Flop Description: Opposing point guard Tony Parker drove into the lane and the accused came to help from the weak side. Quickly, Parker switched directions, made the slightest of contact, and Lebron James flew back in an embellished fashion grabbing the side of his head and fell to the ground. This was a blatant attempt to manipulate the officials. Penalty: The San Antonio Spurs elected to reserve their right to the technical foul free throw to the future date: March 3rd, 2014, when the two teams meet again in Miami. Summary: This player has been accused multiple times for the flopping infraction. This report should be kept in the league files for the duration of the season. Keep an eye on this player for future infractions and keep note if further action is necessary. *End Report* Please note: these match ups and dates are fabricated, just using as an example. I feel these should be placed in a "permanent record" of sorts, and at the end of a players career, these should be noted as well.
In my opinion, you have to have drastic penalties against floppers. When a player made an obvious flop, no warnings followed by stupid marginal fines (5k for these millionaires? Come on), just ban him for the next game. Or you have the fourth official durvasa suggested, when he decides that it was a flop, it's a flagrant 2. That would end flopping immediately, but unfortunately it won't happen.
I understand where you are coming from, and BELIEVE ME I want it to end just as badly, but I still feel the league must be reasonable at the same time. A jump to that extreme would look bad on the league's part. Especially, since we are still at a slap-on-the-hand point. It would look haphazard mostly.
I agree with you, I was just writing down my dream scenario. It wouldn't only look haphazard, it would also hurt the league's reputation. If LeBron flopped, the league had to make a decision whether to ban him and hurt the Bucks' ticket sales and disappoint the little kids at Milwaukee who were so excited to see the MVP or to be inconsistent with their decisions and extend the inequality created by "star calls" to a whole new level. I think it might really work though, maybe following the same process as the new delay of game rules. At the beginning of the season, there were many of these calls, but after a while, all the players got used to it and stopped touching the ball after a made bucket. Still, the idea with the technical is more realistic by far. In my opinion, even a technical foul with an immediate free throw attempt (without giving the opportunity to choose the exact moment) would be a good start. By the way, that's how it's handled in Europe.
Yes I agree 100%. That's what I was basing my idea around. I kinda thought long and hard about this. I'd love to see this happen. In my opinion, it's the only reasonable solution at this point (in comparison to what we currently have) and I want to somehow petition this idea to the NBA. BTW, you do know Lebron plays for Miami right...? lol :grin:
give them a yellow card, the next time they do it suspend them one game. it's a player only driven league for the most part so the nba won't have the cojones to do it.
Wait, what? I didn't know that. Just kidding, I used Milwaukee as an example because the poor guys there don't get to watch good players that often. In Miami, you can see LeBron 41 times in the RS alone.
