Flopping: Where Amazing Happens

NBA players are often times criticized for deceiving or the more current term of flopping more than any other sport.  LeBron James, the leagues best player, has inspired a social media trend called “Lebronning” just off his well publicized ability to flop.  The league has gone so far as to fine players $5,000 for each flop.  Why now is this becoming popular when the Art of Flopping has existed in all sports for many years?

de·ceive
verb
(of a person) cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage.


The ability to flop takes timing, acting and showmanship to pull off effectively.  Despite what you may see on vine, it takes a lot to sell a flop to the officials in charge.  It has always been a part of the game.  In competition you try to figure out what can you get away with to get an advantage over your opponent.  To have a chance to foul your opponent out, gain a power play, get a penalty kick or draw a pass interference penalty, a player will do whatever they have to do to gain that advantage.




When you look at flopping in the NBA, is it really that bad in comparison to what wide receivers do in the end zone to get that interference call or when a catcher frames a ball three inches off the plate selling a pitch to a umpire or the absurdity that goes on during soccer?  Flops in the NBA are done blatantly but by no means are they more egregious than what happens in other sports.  It‘s called embellishment in soccer, diving in hockey and in baseball the closest term you can find for it is bush league play.

With a sport that has more unwritten rules than there are amendments to the constitution, baseball is perhaps the most deceitful sport.  From the hidden ball trick, to catchers expanding the strike zone, to batters pretending to get hit by pitches and the infamous neighborhood play on the bases, baseball is littered with deception.  But where’s the outrage or the fines? In baseball you can try to exact a measure of revenge to thwart future bush league plays by throwing at a guy but that still gives that team a particular advantage of a base runner.

During football it’s become common strategy to draw penalties on the opposition, from overselling hits after the whistle to faking injuries on defense to stop the clock it’s all a part of the game but again no outrage or phenomenons on social media.  Flopping for penalty kicks in soccer is just as well known as the over exuberant goal celebrations by the TV announcers.  Players and now even coaches are falling down all over the pitch to draw free kicks and the ever elusive penalty kick.

So what seems to be the reason for the outrage in basketball for players to deceive the refs?  Did former commissioner David Stern act to quickly in implementing a flawed system to appease those who thought flopping was ruining the game.  To fine millionaires $5,000 (a singular percentage of their annual salary) for flopping seems silly.  Going in to game three on the NBA Finals last night there had been five flopping violations already in the postseason compared to 35 in the regular season.  You don’t even get fined in the regular season until your second flop.  Is that supposed to deter players from flopping...by the numbers it’s most certainly does not.

While flopping is enjoyable to watch either for it’s effectiveness or hilarity, there’s a issue of why NBA players get more slack than others.  With LeBron being the poster child for flopping, although his teammate Dwayne Wade to me is without a shadow of a doubt the Flop King, can we safely say that this is another thing that made James proclaim the other day that he is the “easiest target in sports”  Is it really all about LeBron again, even when it comes to flopping? The ire that he draws on a daily basis relates to something scrubs and stars alike have done for years without getting destroyed. 

To win you must beat your opponent, athletes will go the extra yard to win a game for acclaim, fame and financial gains. They take PEDs to work out harder or recover from injury faster to help their team win. There’s all types of things that go on within sports that stretch outside the boundaries of the rules or what the politically correct favor as the right way to win.  If successful (not caught) the fans and media will both praise them for the sacrifices they made to win.  The player will be called “smart” for having the “presence of mind” for making the “heady play” along with all of the other praise-worthy cliches.  Flopping, deceiving or embellishing has and always will be an integral part of sports and it is something that shouldn’t be polarized to just the NBA.

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