schlagging.com

Dear David Stern

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

There is something wrong with the National Basketball Association.

Sometime in the late nineties, I stopped watching pro hoops. I was sick of watching a disturbing trend. It wasn’t a new thing, but it finally wore on me enough that I couldn’t take it anymore. What am I talking about? Flopping. If you’ve watched Sam Cassell play, or if you’ve seen a Spurs game this decade, you should know what I’m talking about. It’s the practice of playing the game to take advantage of the rules. The rules should keep a game from getting out of hand. They shouldn’t let a game get out of hand in the opposite direction. But they do.

Professional soccer organizations across the globe and NCAA hockey are two examples of leagues that have it right. If you are clearly trying to draw a foul and are over exaggerating your motions and flops - you can get penalized for it. I feel like it should be a form of technical foul in the NBA, to the referees’ discretion. Maybe they won’t always get it right, but sometimes it’s just too obvious to overlook. And right now, refs have no choice but call the foul and let the lame asses take their free throw attempts.

Please take this to heart, and propose the new rule to the owners. The Spurs may object heavily, but I have a feeling most of the league would be in agreeal.

(As a side note, I am not blaming the Suns most recent two losses on flops. They need to play some better ball. It’s just frustrating to see them lose to a team that relies heavily on such tactics.)

Unformatted and Nonsensical Bibliography: Micah Zahler’s email to the masses. Matt Ennis’s soccer wisdom.

2 comments.