Dirk Nowitzki: NBA “never going to get rid of” flopping
By Mike Dyce
Flopping has been thrust into the spotlight in the NBA Playoffs. GIFs and videos of NBA players, namely the Miami Heat and LeBron James, flopping have made their way around the internet.
Just recently the NBA fined Chris Bosh $5,000 for flopping in game 4 of the NBA Finals. Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki thinks the fines and other actions the league is taking to rid itself of flopping is pointless.
“We’re never going to get rid of it,” Nowitzki said recently, via The Dallas Morning News. “But you got to limit it. It’s part of sports. It’s part of winning. Some people are smart and do a little extra thing to kind of sell the call. To me, that’s part of sports.”
But there is a fine line between “selling the call” and flopping. Chris Bosh’s previously mention incident is definitely in the category of flopping. Earlier in the playoffs when Nate Robinson allegedly sent LeBron James flying is another example of flopping and not “selling the call.”
“You don’t want the obvious ones, the really, really bad one,” Nowitzki said. “I think we’d love to get rid of those.
“But if somebody really does get shoved or hit a little bit, just to sell it a little for the referees so it does get the call, I don’t have a problem with that. I think that’s part of the game.”
NBA Commissioner David Stern even thinks the $5,000 fines for flopping are not enough to curb the problem.
“It isn’t enough, it isn’t enough,” Stern said in his annual pre-NBA Finals news conference earlier this month. “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.”