Bro the refs obviously recognize it, the league has just decided to officiate the game this way lol. Do you know how many ads can be crammed into all these stoppages?

i thought it was 5 pretty good games of basketball tbh

Players are so quick and strong now and are pushing and pulling at all times in the playoffs, I understand the position the refs are in as nearly impossible. And if we stopped every play to review a possible flop games would be 6 hours.

The reffing system needs to be revolutionized.

No, the refs and the NBA front office just need to stick to their guns and call the game right. Start consistently calling these obvious and blatant flops, fine repeat offenders, suspend players that keep doing it, and it will stop. Make a committee that goes back and retroactively fines/gives techs to players that build toward a suspension if flops are missed in games. They called flops heavily for a month a few years ago and stopped when some of their ‘star’ players numbers were gutted because they couldn’t flop their way to the free throw line 10 times a game.

The NFL isn’t perfect, but when they say they’re going to make a rule a point of emphasis, they generally stand to stick with it. Take roughing the passer for example, they called it a sickening amount in the mid 2010’s and got a lot of them wrong, but what happened? Coaches and players realized they would get punished if they even attempted it, so they fucking stopped. Pass rushers are just as effective as ever, but they’re coached to attack in different ways to completely avoid the head area of the QB, and as a result it’s a call you simply don’t see very often anymore.

Flopping has been an issue so long it’s become a core part of basketball at this point though, it’s going to take years of concerted effort by the NBA to curtail it, which they simply won’t do.

The game is getting more solved as it gets more solved every little edge is going to get milked. The league has to adjust to this by addressing players flopping.

Brunson quite literally closed the series by foul-baiting. Rewatch the 4th quarter of game 5.

At least the Knicks and spurs aren’t heavy ref complaining teams

They need to do something about traveling as well. In 16 there’s no 5 step layups, 3 step step-backs, or 2 steps out of pivots in these clips. Today’s game is starting to look like a completely different game and I’m seeing kids practicing this shit cause they think if it’s legal in the NBA it’s legal everywhere.

Refs want the power in order to fix games for the legal NBA sponsors.

Adam silver already said that foul baiting is part of the game and theres no point of changing it

I think its also a product of rules being subjective in the playoffs. They play with a set of rules for 82 games+ preseason, and then suddenly the rules change. What does or does not get called depends on the whims of whoever is reffing the game.

But yeah, give obvious floppers techs. Shit wont exist after a month

Yeah, this was pre-harden pioneering the head jerk we all know and love today.

He doesn’t get enough hate

I’ve been bitching about flopping since Manu Ginobili was coming up in the mid-2000s. I still love the NBA and witnessing the game’s evolution but it was definitely more fun to watch ten years ago but there will continue to be ups and downs

It’s only gonna get worse after Adam Silver came out and said he’s ok with it.

Yeah. Also the reggie miller rule was a thing already back then which was flop adjacent.

We were already complaining about flopping back then

Reggie Miller reading this

People have been complaining about the NBA being soft since the 90s, and about flopping since the 2000s.

The Hardening began in earnest around 2017-18 when he was at his peak. That along with guys like Durant and others gaming the rip through fts… that set the stage for everything that followed.

When you give ³⁄₅ MVPs to floppers, the league adjusts.

You missed the ‘06 finals

Yeah lol Game 7 2016 is probably the best basketball game of all time

Doesn’t that mean the incentives to flop were greater in this game? And they still didn’t do it.

I think OP’s point stands—if you watch basketball from a decade ago (not just game 7) this stuff happens very occasionally, but it’s nothing like today

There was plenty of flopping in the playoffs this year. Did you forget Dean Wade falling on Hardens flop sweat?

There’s always been some players that do it (Raja Bell was another one from that era who was known for it), but now it’s most players to varying degrees. Flopping has gotten much much more pervasive.

kobe too

At one point it was a heavy on the players that came from the soccer intense counties. Andy V as well

Or Lebron’s Heat

And pierce

People are losing their minds or just don’t like basketball if they think these finals weren’t great. Can’t imagine complaining about how basketball is played after watching that series. 

It’s really the narrative between okc and spurs that carried onto the finals.

I agree, the refs were dogshit but there wasn’t really blatant flopping. Obviously and as a Knicks fan, I’ll admit some times we would snap back heads or in the case when Kat got elbowed in the face, I think he took time to get back up mainly to get a few seconds of rest vs it actually hurting.

But, it was after contact was made and the guys would still go for the bucket instead of flailing.

The only instance I can think of for a blatant flop was when castle flailed for a call and ended up hurting his ankle. But even then, there was contact on that play and he probably should have gotten the call.

There was a lot of Jersey grabbing that went uncalled for both teams (especially on Kat and wemby) that I think should have been called.

bring back real basketball where everyone would shake hands after the game and my mom would bring me orange slices at half time

Regardless of the issue there will eternally be a contingent of people who are fully convinced that 10-20 years ago, everything was great, and now everything sucks. They were doing it in 2016. They will be doing it about today in 10 years. Somehow, throughout human history, everything just keeps getting worse!

I mean it was objectively better then

no one remembers peak harden shaqtin a fool flopping around this time? they literally changed the rules to allow for his dumb ass double step back

2016 was the peak of jumping sideways while shooting a three and the refs actually calling it a foul

You don’t get it, Adam silver has ruined the game 🤓 

Only among morons

Op can’t forget what he was too young to know.

Moving screens were a thing much longer. 2008-12 Celtics Garnett were the master.

So players started flopping to counteract moving screens from 1 team? Said team dont even exist anymore and they still doing it lol

It would been indisputably the greatest dunk ever when you combine degree of difficulty plus situational impact plus the sudden omg holy shit factor.

It’s all blatant or masked OKC hatred. It will die down over time but people can’t get over OKC’s quick success and SGA being B2B MVP

Yeah, that game was super intense and high stakes, an absolutely massive moment. But it was also a total rock fight.

I actually think the game play was good they just missed.

Like Warriors executed double screen perfectly after Kyrie’s shot to get Love on an island with Steph

Was also a great play a little before that ended up in an open 3 that Dray bricked

I don’t think missing shots is bad quality when it’s incredible defense.

True. This is also part of the reason lebron’s block was so iconic. It was really hard to buy a bucket at the end of that game.

That’s how it is in the playoffs the deeper you go usually. Scores go down. Brunson, Wemby, and Shai were all missing. It makes every basket more meaningful.

Quality was not bad. Game 7, nerves, highest stakes, exhaustion, tight defense… if you say that was bad quality you just have never touched a basketball before

It’s shocking how much less physical the playoffs were just 5-10 years ago. Even all those Warriors/Cavs finals had so much less off-ball grabbing and holding and wrestling for rebounds.

It’s like the NBA looked back at the dead ball, post-Jordan early 2000s era and thought “who wants this space and pace nonsense? give me more of THAT!”

That “logic” has plagued basketball at all levels for decades. It’s neither the rules nor common sense but refs keep calling it that way.

I think he said he blacked out haha

G7 was an absolute grit it out banger of a game. Two teams why legitimately left it all out on the court and it came down the only way it should have with who had the last burst of energy to pull out the win. An all time classic of try trans legitimately giving it their all and not trying to cheat the other out. You could see at that point it had gone from cockiness to respect that everyone was on the court with greatness and we are all only one mistake away from losing this.

I didn’t think so at all. Just missed some shots that usually go down. I don’t think it was ugly to watch at all

It wasn’t ugly basketball, it was guys being exhausted with high emotions going all out in every possession. Watch some of the recent podcasts with JR, Frye, RJ, they all talk about how being up 3 points felt like you were the best in the world vs being down 3 points meant life was over and you lost. Every single shot was a roller coaster of emotions.

Yes but they never call it

haahahahhaa