David Stern Says Flopping Is Legitimate Concern For NBA
Oscar Goes To
NBA commissioner David Stern, like coaches and players everywhere, recognizes that flopping has become a problem, and he vows to study the issue this offseason.
“It’s a legitimate concern,” Stern told ESPN’s Lisa Salters during the broadcast of Indiana Pacers-Miami Heat Game 1 on Sunday. “Some years ago, I told the competition committee that we were going to start fining people for flopping and then suspend them—and I think they almost threw me out of the room (and told me), ‘No, let it be.’
“But I think it’s time to look at it a more serious way, because it’s only designed to fool the referee—it’s not a legitimate play in my judgment,” Stern added. “… Some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.”
Salters’ question was in the context of the league fining Pacers coach Frank Vogel $15,000 for calling the Heat the “biggest flopping team in the NBA” and saying it will be “very interesting how the referees officiate the series and how much flopping they reward.”
“He didn’t have a beef, he was just manipulating the referees—or trying to,” Stern said. “I would have fined him much more than our office did.”
