Flopping keeps cropping up
19 03 2007The NBA art of simulating an offensive foul may be hated, but it’s unlikely to go away
Doug Haller
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 18, 2007 12:00 AM
The NBA is a scorer’s league. Everything favors the offense: the rules, the officiating, the shot clock. It’s a jump shooter’s game. A penetrator’s paradise.
Backed into a corner, or maybe the lane, today’s defender does the only thing he can to make up the difference.
He flops. And, oh, how the masses cry foul. “It’s definitely frustrating because guys don’t play defense no more,” Suns center Amaré Stoudemire said. “They call it smart basketball.”
Flopping - the art of feigning an offensive foul - is nothing new, it just seems that way. Guys are falling backward - “like they were shot with a gun,” Suns reserve Marcus Banks said - at what seems like a record pace.
This may be one of the best articles I have read recently related to basketball and officiating. I don’t agree with everything said but at least it makes a real arguement for a need to change!