For years, basketball fundamentalists have called the NBA out for all the flopping. Players like Joel Embiid,Trae Young, and James Hardenare often rewarded for foul-baiting, and there’s not much defensive players could do.
Of course, this works both ways. All teams flop, all stars flop, and the fans have been aware of that for decades. Sometimes, it just happens to benefit their rivals, which is why the coaches try and speak up.
That was the case with Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who recently went on a full anti-flopping rantand called out the Los Angeles Lakers for fooling the referees throughout their playoff series.
Steve Kerr Calls Out The Lakers For Flopping
“I think, to me, what I’ve learned coaching in FIBA — FIBA has a great rule, there’s a flop rule, and if a referee deems that a player has flopped, they just call a technical foul, and it’s pretty penalizing,” Kerr said. “So, the flopping has basically been eliminated from FIBA. We have the ability to do the same thing in the NBA if we want.”
“I think we should address it because the players are so smart and the entire regular season is about gamesmanship and trying to fool the refs, and this is how it’s been for a while,” Kerr added. “So, my personal plea to the NBA (is) I think we can do better, in terms of cleaning up the flopping. In the meantime, I give the Lakers credit for the plays that they’ve been able to sell.”
LeBron James Fires Back At Kerr
“We don’t work on flopping,” James said. “That’s not even a part of our game; our game is to attack the paint. We don’t mind physical contact; we actually like the contact and don’t shy away from it. We’re just not a team that goes out there looking for flopping opportunities. That’s just not us. It’s actually never been any team that I’ve played on in my 20 years where we have been a flopping team.”
Well, it actually takesyou about 10 seconds to find several compilations of LeBron’s hilarious and blatant flops, so maybe he’s not the right guy to talk about this. Still, that might have just been Kerr trying to put pressure on the officials ahead of a must-win game.
