David Stern says the NBA needs to start taking flopping more seriously

If NBA officials can go back and review plays to determine if a player deserves a technical, they need to be given the ability to penalize players for flopping. When someone falls to the floor like they’ve been shot in an attempt to draw a call, there should be consequences. According to David Stern, the NBA is finally beginning to look at the issue more seriously.

“It’s a legitimate concern,” Stern told ESPN’s Lisa Salters on Sunday according to the Sporting News. “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 … Some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.”

The MVP trophy joke is particularly interesting since LeBron James — your 2011-2012 MVP — is widely considered to be one of the biggest floppers in the league. For those of you who don’t believe that’s true, look no further than these plays or the one below that took place while Stern was in the audience on Sunday.

Something has to be done. When an official overturns a call because the replay shows him that a player flopped and it was not actually a foul, the flopper should receive a technical. The NBA has a poor enough reputation for officials making bad calls. The league doesn’t need its players to help the refs look bad.

H/T I Am a GM