As the New York Knicks carry a surprising 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals, another storyline has dominated social media discourse during these NBA Playoffs, besides just the magma-hot run by the Knicks and the alien-like play of Victor Wembanyama.
That storyline is a less celebrated one: officiating and flopping.
While the main catalysts of the discourse, the Oklahoma City Thunder and back-to-back MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, were eliminated by the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, complaints about reffing and flopping continue in the Finals and have persisted throughout these Playoffs. As one Blazer’s Edge colleague said in a Slack message today:
“I find it amazing that we’ve gone from OKC gets all of the calls to [San Antonio] gets all the calls, at least according to socials as far as I can see.”
On the subject of flopping, during NBA Finals Media Day on Tuesday, Spurs guard Stephon Castle was asked about the notion that he and the rest of the Spurs don’t flop and could be leaving “gamesmanship on the table by not doing that.” Castle responded with an honest answer:
“I don’t really know how to answer that. I mean, I sell calls too sometimes. I can’t lie.”
Castle’s response cuts to the league-wide pervasiveness of flopping or selling contact. While some players may be more egregious with how often they try to sell contact, it’s not something that’s isolated to just a few players or one team. Former NBA head coach Doc Rivers said as much during an appearance on the Bill Simmons Podcast following Game 1.
“Everyone flops around now. It’s so funny,” Rivers said. “ … It’s not taught. Players work on it, but it’s not taught really. The players just work on it. I thought Brunson flopped and Karl-Anthony Towns flopped every bit as much as Wemby did.”
We’ll use this hot-button issue as the basis for today’s offseason reader discussion question: How do you feel about the reffing and flopping in the NBA Playoffs? Is this facet of the game becoming as much of a problem as the discourse has made it out to be? Has it spoiled some of your enjoyment while watching NBA basketball? Or is a lot of this overblown?
If you view it as a big problem, what does the league need to do to fix the issue? Let us know in the comments below!
