For as long as there has been basketball, players have been trying to fool the referees into making the calls they want. We see it now with some of the league’s most notorious ‘foul-baiters’ who are able to get to the free throw line at will, and it surely existed shortly after James Naismith first hung up those peach baskets, as well.
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For at least a few decades, flopping has been a tool that players utilize to get the calls they want. Whether it’s LeBron James pretending to get hit in the face and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap, or Marcus Smart flying backwards off the slightest post-up contact like he got hit by a semi truck, the job of being a referee is not an easy one.
On the latest episode of No Fouls Given, Danny Green and Paul Pierce received a listener question about how far back flopping goes, and whether the players or the refs are to blame.
Pierce instantly blamed the players, which he then used as a launching point to talk about some of the all-time floppers that have come through the NBA. “I think the one person that comes to mind is probably Vlade Divac,” he said. Danny Green brought up another one. “What about Dennis Rodman?” he asked.
Pierce’s career only barely overlapped with Rodman’s, as he came into the league in 1998 and Rodman retired in 2000. Still, he vouched for the Worm’s flopping prowess. “Dennis was a master of it,” he said. “It was a way to manipulate the refs. So it became kinda like an art form.”
According to Pierce, players are constantly pushing the boundaries of what they can get away with. Then the league makes a rule change, and they pivot to exploiting something else. It’s a tale as old as time.
He recalled Divac and the way he would flop against Shaquille O’Neal in those epic Kings-Lakers matchups. Shaq was constantly griping about players flopping and trying to use his size and strength against him, and Divac was the most frequent offender.
Rodman would do whatever he could to get under an opposing player’s skin, and to his credit, it obviously worked throughout his career. He won two rings as a member of the Bad Boy Pistons, then three more after joining the second half of the Bulls’ dynasty. Flopping, starting fights, trash-talking, it was all part of the Rodman package, and it didn’t hurt that he was such a superlative rebounder and defender, either.
With all the talk lately about ‘unethical basketball’ and the way certain stars are able to get calls, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the league tweaks the rules again soon. Once they do, there’s no doubt that players will adjust and find a new tactic, just as they always have.
