Here is an idea, how about the ref not call a foul if they think it is a flop, then after the ref could tell the player that he flopped, it would be pretty embarasing to be told that i reckon.
Here lies the problem. The refs are still gullible as hell (for some reason unknown to me) and still some have bias and still favor the superstar calls.
They have to punish the team as well as the player. A technical is a start. A point system for suspension specific for flopping is the ultimate way. If you punish the team, coaches will do something to curb the flops. And if players get suspended, they lose their salary money, much more than the pathetic $5K chump change.
Talk about trying to kill the Rockets. You end flopping, you end Harden's career. So you just want him to shoot threes and play great defense, great. His ability to draw fouls are the only reason I like him and you want to take away half of those?
Umm...yeah. There should be NO double standards. Flopping is a disgusting habit and must be contained no matter who is affected.
Drawing fouls is not the same as flopping. If you really like a player because he's flopping, I can't understand that at all. Harden uses a difficult, but really clever trick to draw that many fouls: He holds the ball further away from his body than most of the other players. The difficult part is that it's easy to get stripped when the ball is exposed. Somehow, Harden found an exact spot that allows him to retain control of the ball, but tempts defenders to reach in. As the ball isn't at the spot where it usually is and where the defenders are used to slap it out of the driving player's hands, they get him on the arms, that's a foul. Of course, that's not the whole story, he often tries to create contact which I don't like at all, but that's not necessarily a flop, although it is often close to one and sometimes is. Still, I would support Harden getting harsher punishment for flopping if it helps eliminating that disgusting trend from the NBA.
NBA should award the other team a free throw and the ball. Lebron has said in the past he will do what he has to do to win. Well, if you want to stop it. You need to make flopping an act against winning!
The "delayed free-throw" approach is interesting. I've never heard of it before. I think this should be used for flagrant fouls instead of flopping. Although it will never happen, since it completely changes the dynamics of a basketball game. Some minor basketball league should try this. It just sounds very radical and fun.
I don't understand why the league does not hire 1 or 2 more officials. They could function like soccer sideline referees. They support the 3 main officials and help make judgments calls when the 3 main officials don't get a good angle on the play.
I suspect that a number of the flops casual fans think are flops, don't ultimately get recorded as such by the league as they watch the games afterwards. That tells me either of two things: #1 - they aren't as keen to reduce flopping as you think #2 - there aren't as many flops as we think It may be a combination of the above... AND that may be because for a good majority of flops, they are flops to get the right call. Harden is obvious. He might "flop", but a majority of the time, it's because he is ACTUALLY getting fouled. Or consider the big man post defender. If he is guarding an opposing big who is barreling into him, bu trying to hold his ground, refs NEVER call an offensive foul. If he "flops", refs usually do call the offensive foul. So you certainly can't call that a "flop". As the opposing team fan, I might say c'mon, he flopped, Dwight didn't run over him... but actually Dwight probably did, and the guy just flopped so the ref would finally blow the whistle. Without a doubt there are a lot of crazy TRUE flops. CP3 pretending to get hit when he doesn't. Bayless falling 3 seconds after a play. And those should clearly be called. But to me, they are the less significant portion of flopping. That being the case, i am in favor of the current system, but with more public disclosure (like the stat category idea) and more punishment, via both player fines and suspensions.
I'm going to start a brand new online petition to get this thing rolling. We have over 40,000 members on this board. How many can we get to sign? Who's down? I need Clutch's permission to use the Clutchfans name.
