Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is stepping up his efforts to get the NBA to crack down on flopping. The NBA first began fining players for flopping this season, but that has hardly eliminated acting from the game. Perhaps the $100,000 Cuban has given to Southern Methodist University to study the phenomenon will help.
According to ESPNDallas.com, SMU is launching an 18-month study to examine the forces involved in basketball collisions. Their goal is to determine whether video and other motion-capture techniques can help distinguish between actual collisions and flopping.
“The research findings could conceivably contribute to video reviews of flopping and the subsequent assignment of fines,” SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyland said in a statement.
Cuban sent out the following tweet on Friday to promote his involvement with the study.
Is it a flop ? Let the scientists figure it out . im paying for the research to find out.blog.smu.edu/research/2013/…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) June 7, 2013
The NBA began reviewing possible instances of flopping this season and issuing fines, but only five players were fined $5,000 each during the regular season. Seven more have been fined in the playoffs, but NBA commissioner David Stern admitted the penalties have not been adequate.
“It isn’t enough, it isn’t enough,” Stern said earlier this week. “You’re not going to cause somebody to stop it for $5,000 when the average player’s salary is $5.5 million. And anyone who thought that was going to happen was allowing hope to prevail over reason.”
We would all love to see less of this during the most important games of the season. If Mark Cuban can donate $180,000 to help the cause, I can certainly contribute $1. Just tell me where to send it. And pay the postage for me.
