NBA to Fine Players for Flopping

Posted by Phil Partington May 30, 2008

The NBA's management techniques have been less than impressive recently. First, they do a piss-poor job of handling the Seattle Supersonics' situation, then they call out referee Joey Crawford for missing a key foul call late in game four of the Lakers-Spurs series, then they announce that they plan to fine players for flopping. It seems the league has lost all trust in their refs ever since the Tim Donaghy incident last year. The job of an NBA referee is a very difficult one to be sure, and missing the occasional call has always been part of the game. It's understandable for the league to implement an instant replay system for buzzer-beaters, but to publicly call out an official for missing a call cheapens the refs' in-game authority. The job of a ref is not to make the right call every time. It's to manage the game and keep order, while being as fair as possible. The league is overstepping their bounds and de-valuing the profession of the basketball referee, and not letting them do their jobs.

In the case of flopping, perhaps referees should be better trained on how to watch for such a maneuver, or perhaps the league should include "catching flops" in a ref's evaluation, but fining players is a dangerous precedant to start. Whether or not a player is flopping is often determined by individual discrepancy, and sometimes that can be inconsistent. Also, there are many occasions when a player might over-sell the foul, but it is still a foul. It seems the league should be focussing on more pressing issues, like the collective bargaining agreement which continues to drive ticket prices through the roof and has been the cause of several teams changing cities.