Flopping

Everybody has watched a NBA game at one time, everybody has inevitably seen a player flop. Flopping is where they take a little nudge and over dramatize it by flopping to the floor trying to draw a cheap foul. I think this is a disgrace to the game. It basically steals a possession away from the opposing team. Looking at a list of the greatest floppers of all time, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neumann/070607, and I recognized two right off the bat, Anderson Varejao and Manu Ginobli. The irony here is that they were both part of the 2006-2007 NBA Finals last season. Is flopping carrying teams to through the playoffs. Lets take a look at Anderson Varejao. He is a big man that can play big so instead of blocking shots and holding his ground we see him flopping against players of all sizes. To me this isn't as bad as flopping on the offensive side of the game. That's where Manu Ginobli comes in. His flopping on drives to the hoop are so good that players around the league are half jokingly asking for acting classes from the shooting guard, http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA060505.1C.BKNspurs.ginobili.2e1a8dfd4.html. The refs have the hardest time telling if the 200 pound Ginobli got touched by the 300 pound big men guarding the hoop. Over and over the refs make the call on the offensive teams side. This needs to stop. I saw a little improvement during the playoffs with more no calls, but it is not enough. David Stern has acknowledged this as an issue and even considered letting the refs call flops as fouls. One of two things need to happen, the players need to have enough respect for the game to play it right, or the refs have to take it in their hands and no let the flopper's get their satisfaction of hearing that whistle.