Flopping in the NBA has become an epidemic at this point, something that has clearly become a part of the game. Even the superstars these days are flopping, just ask the likes of LeBron James and Chris Paul.
The NBA to their credit, made it a point this year that they wanted to cut down on the flopping going on throughout the league. Administering $5,000 fines to players that flop during the course of a game. Despite these efforts, flops are still happening and NBA commissioner David Stern spoke about the situation and even admitted that the current penalties for it are not enough.
“It isn’t enough. You’re not going to cause somebody to stop it for $5,000 when the average player’s salary is $5.5 million. And anyone who thought that was going to happen was allowing hope to prevail over reason.”
“We knew that flopping was going to be far from perfect. And we gather more attention because we were giving it more attention. But the point was to do it gently, look at all the flops – and there have been plenty – penalize the most egregious very gently.
“We could end that immediately if we decided to suspend players, but that might be a little bit draconian at the moment.”
We’ll have to wait and see if the league decides to come back with harsher penalties next season, because it’s clear that something needs to be done.