The NBA’s fine system for flopping this season was really based around the idea that guys would be embarrassed. The fines were not that stiff. In the regular season the first offense was a warning, second time the fine was $5,000, then $10,000 and up from there. In the playoffs, all they did was remove the warning.
As we saw LeBron James, David West and Lance Stephenson all get fined for flops on Thursday, safe to say it doesn’t look like it’s working.
If you really want it to stop, hit guys in the pocketbook, says Shane Battier of the Heat. I know, a lot of you just screamed “Him? He plays dirty. He’s a flopper” But hear the man out, via Tom Haberstroh at ESPN.“Money,” Battier said. “Money, always….
“People say public scorn or the humiliation [matters],” Battier said, “but players couldn’t care less about being publicly humiliated. They couldn’t care less...
“No one cares,” Battier said. “In our society now, labels don’t matter. Labels change every 10 minutes. But money? It hurts. I hate to sound like a capitalist, but that’s much more effective than public humiliation.”
He’s right.
It’s not going to stop everybody in every case — flopping isn’t something new to the NBA, go back and watch some Vlade Divac highlights if you want to — but the public humiliation angle didn’t work. So it’s time to try something else.