Flop (basketball)

In basketball, flop is a pejorative term that refers to a defensive player intentionally falling backward to the floor upon physical contact with an offensive player. The hope is that it will appear to the official that the defensive player was knocked off of his feet by the offensive player's contact, thus prompting the official to call a charging foul against the offensive player. Flopping can also refer to the offensive player who simulates fouls against the defensive player.

The move is also sometimes called acting, as in "acting like he was fouled". Because it is inherently designed to deceive the official, flopping is generally considered to be unsportsmanlike. Nonetheless, it is widely practiced and even perfected by many great professional players.

Flopping effectively is not easy to do, primarily because drawing contact can sometimes result in the opposite effect—a foul called on the defensive player—when too much contact is drawn or if the player has not positioned himself perfectly. Additionally, even if no foul is called on either player, by falling to the floor, the flopping defensive player will have taken himself out of position to provide any further defensive opposition on the play, thus potentially allowing the offense to score easily. To consistently draw offensive fouls on opponents takes good body control and a great deal of practice. Players generally become better at flopping as their careers progress.

The National Basketball Association or NBA added a rule in 1997 to cut down on flopping near the basket, adding a 4-foot (1.22 meter) "dotted line area" around the center of the basket to help prevent flops. Such flops are charged as blocking fouls or no-calls.

Unlike the NBA, the penalty for "flopping" under FIBA rules is a technical foul. (FIBA rules state that would count as one of a player's five fouls (6 in a 48-minute game in some countries) towards being taken out of the game. In the NBA technical fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct count as one towards the two to ejection or seven to suspension.)

On May 28, 2008, the NBA announced that it would impose fines on players who show a clear case of flopping and suspensions for repeat offenders.

Flopper controversy

One of the most vocal complainers about flopping in the NBA has been the recently retired Rasheed Wallace. In a 2008 interview, when he was with the Detroit Pistons, he complained:

"All that bull[expletive]-ass calls they had out there. With Mike [Callahan] and Kenny [Mauer] -- you've all seen that [expletive]," Wallace said. "You saw them calls. The cats are flopping all over the floor and they're calling that [expletive]. That [expletive] ain't basketball out there. It's all [expletive] entertainment. You all should know that [expletive]. It's all [expletive] entertainment."

On November 28, 2009, Wallace, by this time with the Boston Celtics, again made sports news wires when he claimed that Hedo Türkoğlu, then with the Toronto Raptors, duped the officials into giving Wallace his fifth technical of the season by flopping:

They've got to know that he's a damn flopper. That's all Turkododo do. Flopping shouldn't get you nowhere. He acts like I shot him. That's not basketball, man. That's not defense. That's garbage, what it is. I'm glad I don't have too much of it left.

At the time, Wallace was the NBA's career leader in both technicals and ejections, but went on to claim that some of those calls stemmed from his reputation, and also believed that a technical called in the same game on his Celtics teammate Paul Pierce was sketchy at best:

Let the Golden Child [LeBron James] do that, or one of the NBA Without Border kids do that, it's all fine and dandy. This game is watered down, watered down with all that flopping. They're setting rules on us to the point where you're taunting if you dunk on somebody. Paul dunked it and then he didn't say nothing, but it's a tech.

Commissioner David Stern has complained about flopping because it's a way to fool the officials, but the league has been unable to find a way to punish or prevent it. And, although Stern agreed with Wallace in principle, the league fined Wallace $25,000 for the 2008 outburst (because of the obscenities) and $30,000 for the second.

Shaquille O'Neal loathes opponents who resort to flopping. He criticized Dikembe Mutombo, the 2000-2001 Defensive Player of the Year, in the 2001 NBA Finals and Vlade Divac in the 2002 Western Conference finals for their theatrics. O'Neal said he would never exaggerate contact to draw a foul. "I'm a guy with no talent who has gotten this way with hard work." In a 2006 interview in Time, O'Neal said if he were NBA commissioner, he would "Make a guy have to beat a guy--not flop and get calls and be nice to the referees and kiss ass." However, in a matchup against the Orlando Magic on March 3, 2009, O'Neal flopped against center Dwight Howard. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was "very disappointed cause [O'Neal] knows what it's like. Let's stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that tonight." O'Neal responded, "Flopping is playing like that your whole career. I was trying to take the charge, trying to get a call. It probably was a flop, but flopping is the wrong use of words. Flopping would describe his coaching."

Shortly before the Indiana Pacers were to take on the Miami Heat in the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals, Pacers coach Frank Vogel criticized his opponents for alleged flopping:

They are the biggest flopping team in the NBA. It'll be very interesting (to see) how the referees officiate the series and how much flopping they reward... Every drive to the basket, they have guys not making a play on the ball, but sliding in front of drivers. Oftentimes they're falling down even before contact is even being made. It'll be interesting to see how the series is officiated.

Vogel was fined $15000 by the league for these remarks, and some speculate that the remarks were intended to bias referees against the Heat in the series.

Player Who Doesn't Flop and Plays Really Hard All The Time: It is often times a tragedy and a travesty for players to flop. It is a disservice to hard working players like Jared Jeffries when players flop. Jeffries is considered, far and away, the best in the league at drawing offense fouls and puts his body on the line day and night for his team. Some would call it downright insulting to Jeffries when another player in the league flops.

Famous floppers

Vlade Divac earned a reputation as a premier flopper and is often found at or near the top of lists ranking the greatest floppers in NBA history. Even one of Divac's own countrymen and former teammates, Peja Stojaković, referred to him as "the father of flopping."

In college basketball, Duke was named by Sports Illustrated in 2009 at the top of its list of the "Top 10 Flops" of the 2000s—a list otherwise reserved for players, teams, or other sports figures who spectacularly failed to live up to expectations—because of the team's perceived tendency to flop in order to draw fouls.

Other players who have been named as premier floppers include:

• Danny Ainge
• Shane Battier
• Raja Bell
• Jarron and Jason Collins, named by Shaquille O'Neal in 2009 as the NBA's worst floppers
• Derek Fisher, of whom Divac said, "I think he does a better job of that [flopping] than I do."
• Manu Ginóbili
• Robert Horry
• Bill Laimbeer
• Kevin Martin
• Reggie Miller
• Greg Paulus (at Duke)
• Dennis Rodman
• Luis Scola
• John Stockton
• Anderson Varejão
• Blake Griffin
• LeBron James

See also

• Diving (football)

External links

• ESPN's Page 2 on "The Art of Flopping" The article includes the columnist's opinions about who are the best (i.e. most egregious) floppers.
• This American Life "Crybabies", Act Two chronicles the phenomenon of basketball flopping and its origins.