Stern's New Rule May Be A Flop (Puns!)

     David Stern today instituted the flopping penalty in the NBA, after a season where flopping was definitely gaining more and more criticism by the day. It's intentions are definitely not something to be questioned, getting rid of a popular play in the NBA that is based on fooling a referee. Player's have used flopping as one of their main skills to stop the opponent from scoring, which in no way anyone can say is the way the game should be played. The way the penalties are set up, a player will get a warning the first offense. Then will have a fines of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, and $30,000 in order on the next 4 offenses. On the 6th offense going forward, a player can be up for suspension (which no where I have seen is specific on if it carries over to the playoff or not). Now there is no doubt that this rule institution has the right mind set, but in order for this to have the positive impact on the game it will be need to govern correctly.
      The issue is going to be what the interpretation of what is a flop, and the consistency of what makes a flop. The rule is going to have to be consistently governed, because if not things could get messy really fast. Can you imagine if LeBron James gets suspended from a flop on a prime time game in May that is very similar to one Kent Bazemore gets away with on a random Wednesday in January. The fans won't react to the gray area of the calls very well, and I can see SportsCenter running a "plays that weren't called flops" segment if a star finds himself punished unfairly. The issue isn't the intentions of this rule, because as already said the intentions are golden. There just may be more problems created from the rule being implemented than problems removed by the rule.
      The next issue, is that quite frankly that the NBA world may of been better off by keeping flopping involved in the game. NBA player's are hyper competitive people that will use any means necessary to win basketball games. Tricking referees into calls has been something that is been a part of the game for years, and flopping was just a newer means to do so. Reggie Miller is someone every Pacers fan loves and greatly respects, and yet Reggie would always use methods to trick the refs and get fouls called on his opponent that aren't fair. Watching Reggie antagonize John Starks in 1994 is a clear example of this. It was in a way fun to see Reggie get Starks all riled up by pushing him around, to finally get Starks to push back leading to a foul on Starks. This is just another way to mislead refs into the wrong call, and Reggie would never get fined. Sure, last season we saw flopping probably reach an all time high in the NBA. This is something that during a game to watch can be disappointing, and something that really couldn't be ignored. The only thing is if the NBA's office doesn't take care of this in the right manner, however, it really can be more detrimental to the league than helpful.