In the middle of a two-game regular-season series with the Sixers, Marcus Smart has taken it upon himself to tackle one of the biggest plights currently facing the NBA.
Flopping, a true dark art of basketball, is where a player flails their limbs or dives to the floor in order to exaggerate minor contact or give the impression that there was contact on a play where no contact occurred in order to draw a foul call on their opponent.
For example:
Photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty ImagesSmart believes Joel Embiid was flopping in the Sixers-Celtics game on Wednesday and that is why Embiid shot 21 free-throws. It apparently had nothing to do with the fact that no Celtic could cover Embiid in single coverage and every time Embiid had the ball within 10 feet of the basket there was some form of contact on the play.
In his post-game interview, Marcus explained:
“It’s tough. It is tough. Especially when we’ve got our hands up a lot of the times, and he flails and gets the call, and then down on the other end we’ve got our guys attacking the rim, getting a lot of contact, and we’re just not getting the whistle. It’s tough to play like that. It’s tough.”
While some may doubt Smart’s credibility and label him the “flop king” he has acknowledged his own misdeeds in the past:
“I flop on defense, your favorite player flops on offense. That’s the only difference. Especially in a game where the offense has nothing but the advantage, the defense has to do something to get the advantage back.”
So there is a difference; one is fine and the other should be removed from the game forever.
Just to make things clear, these are bad:
And these are good:
And this is somewhere in the middle:
Okay, now I’m confused.
Featured Image: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
