The NBA could start punishing floppers this season.
David Stern met with Jeff Van Gundy and the rest of the league’s new competition committee today to talk about different strategies to deal with floppers. New rules haven’t been set yet but several sources are reporting that the league may start punishing floppers by issuing fines after games.
Stern, who reffered to flopping as “trickery” and “deceit,” said that a player could get a memo following a game, saying :
“Greetings from the league office. You have been assigned flopper status … No, I’m joking, but something like that. That sort of lets people know that it’s not enough to say ‘it’s all part of the game.’ “
Stern added that the competition committee was in favor of punishing floppers but exactly how it was going to be done had to be decided.
“If you continue to do this, you may you have to suffer some consequences. What those exactly should be and what the progression is is to be decided … We want to put a stake in the ground that says this is not something that we want to be part of our game, without coming down with a sledgehammer but just doing it in a minimalist way to begin stamping it out. And I think there are ways we can do that and we’ll have to wait and see exactly what we come up with.”
The competition committee, which is comprised of several coaches, owners, and general managers from around the league also discussed expanding instant replay to cover flagrant fouls and goaltending. ESPN reports that the competition committee can’t actually change any rules. Their suggestions will need to be approved by the league’s Board of Governors.