From now on, NBA “floppers” will not only receive a fine after the fact but may be sanctioned during the match, with a technical foul and a free throw for the opponent in the event of “flopping”.
It is therefore necessary that the officials of the Great League can quickly determine what is really a “flop” and it is Monty McCutchen, in charge of the training of referees within the NBA, who is responsible for this mission. In a short press lessonthe latter revealed how he intended to go about it.
Monty McCutchen explains that there is an acronym (STEM) to help referees. This means “Secondary, Theatrical, Exaggerated Movements”. For the zebras, it will therefore be a question of sanctioning movements that they consider too “secondary”, “theatrical” or “exaggerated”.
A “secondary” movement is defined as occurring well after the actual contact. For the “theatrical” movement, Monty McCutchen used a “flop” from Kyle Lowry against Marcus Smart during the last playoffs.
The Boston leader had certainly initiated the contact, but his Heat counterpart had “sold” the affair so much that he ended up going over the scorer’s table. Moreover, this action also illustrates, for Monty McCutchen, that a technical foul for “flopping” can apply, even to a real offensive foul.
Technical fouls which do not result in expulsion
“If all Kyle did was fall, then the contact and the reaction to that contact would have stuck.”explained Monty McCutchen.
As for “exaggerated” contact, it is recognized by three factors: too great a distance traveled by the player who flops, excessive movement of the limbs and the possibility of injuring another player on a flop.
Monty McCutchen, however, reminds us that there should be few technical errors of this kind.
“The only thing that has changed is that there is a very small percentage of these offenses that we are now going to penalize”he concludes. “We’re doing a good job of not whistling all that stuff. All we’re adding is a top layer to really get rid of these egregious actions.”
Please note, however, that these technical faults are different from “classic” technical faults and will therefore not count for possible expulsion. Indeed, two technical fouls result in an ejection from the match in the NBA, but technical fouls received for “flopping” will not be counted.
