“Marcus Smart has lost $10,000 for excessive flopping”: Celtics DPOY has been fined thousands of dollars for trying to sell his flops

Marcus Smart has lost $10,000 over the course of his NBA career with the Boston Celtics for trying to flop during games. 

Marcus Smart is one of the NBA’s most premier perimeter defenders and cemented himself amongst the pantheons of perimeter defenders this 2021-22 season. His ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ win over guys like Rudy Gobert and Mikal Bridges made him just the third guard after Michael Jordan and Gary Payton to win a DPOY in 75 years. 

Everything from his lateral quickness to him being able to fight through screens as good as anybody has throughout league history, Marcus Smart truly has earned every bit of praise he’s gotten on the defensive end of the floor. 

Unfortunately, with stellar defense comes the task of trying to bait fouls in hopes of an offensive foul being called on the opposing player. Throughout the course of his career in Boston, Marcus Smart has been notorious for trying to sell fouls that eventually divulge into flops.

Also read: “Marcus Smart used his $14 million rookie salary to buy his mom a house”: Celtics DPOY made good on his promise to buy his mother a home after getting drafted

This has caused him to appear several times on Shaqtin’ a Fool and has also cost him thousands of dollars in the process. 

Marcus Smart has been fined $10,000 for excessive flopping. 

It is quite the surprise that over the course of a near decade long career with the Celtics, Marcus Smart has only been fined twice for flopping. The first was during a Playoff game between the Celts and the Atlanta Hawks on April 23rd, 2016 and this is quite the infamous flop due to the severely exaggerated nature of it.

Also read: “Jrue Holiday channeled his inner Michael Jordan by taking Marcus Smart’s DPOY personally”: NBA Twitter lauds the Bucks star for his clutch defensive plays to secure the Game 5 win vs Celtics

Smart was fined $5,000 for this egregious flop. The next time he would be fined for flopping would happen 4 years later during a Playoff game as well against the Toronto Raptors on September 2nd, 2020. He was fined $5,000 for this as well. The fee for flopping is quite standard here by the looks of it.

Flopping is quite the difficult action to fine as quite nearly everybody does it. Is it flopping if you take a charge from a 6’8, 250lb LeBron James who comes barreling down a lane?  

Many forget that NBA players are quite literally, built different. Sure, selling fouls is a part of the game but regulating it is difficult as there is no set scale on how much a player can try to sell said foul.