Is the NBA’s Flopping Epidemic a Players Problem or an Officials Problem? | The Rich Eisen Show

0:00 the NBA can't win for losing.

0:04 Because in the regular season,

0:06 they can't stop their teams from tanking to the point that they

0:10 have to come up with some convoluted Always Sunny in Philadelphia conspiracy

0:17 theory red stringed concept of anti-tanking with ping pong balls and relegation

0:24 zones and things like that that'll be totally confusing for fans to understand.

0:30 So you can't stop the teams from tanking in the regular season.

0:32 Oh, well, the postseason's hit.

0:33 We we don't have to talk about tanking.

0:35 But now flopping is right there.

0:38 Flopping is front and center.

0:40 Jaylen Brown called your center Joel Embiid a big-time flopper.

0:46 You know?

0:46 Yeah, and everybody thinks that was sour grapes.

0:49 And Jaylen Brown It's fact.

0:52 then Sour grapes.

0:53 quadrupled down in his own Twitch feed talking

0:56 about how some referees need to be investigated.

1:00 And that they clearly had an agenda.

1:04 Well, that's a $50,000 fine for Mr.

1:06 Brown.

1:07 Who cares?

1:08 Chump change.

1:09 Yeah, still 50 G's.

1:10 But his other comment is the one that truly lingers.

1:14 Every good basketball player does this.

1:16 What are you all talking about?

1:18 They clearly had an agenda.

1:19 That was the first two sentences before the agenda

1:22 line that caused the NBA to pop him 50K.

1:29 And my timeline last night I don't know about yours.

1:34 My timeline last night on Threads cuz I'm off

1:37 the hateful X was filled with montages of SGA flopping.

1:47 You say montage, I say montage.

1:50 Ah.

1:52 Montagery.

1:51 The montagery of SGA flopping.

1:56 And fans are done with it.

1:57 Sick of it.

1:58 Last year the Oklahoma City Thunder were those young kids

2:02 that were blossoming together in a in an MVP season for SGA.

2:08 You could countenance all of this flopping.

2:11 Free throw merchant, I believe,

2:12 is what Doris Burke dropped that line on a broadcast

2:16 that a lot of other people picked up.

2:19 That's another way of saying he's flopping.

2:21 And he's getting the calls.

2:24 So, there's that.

2:27 Why would you stop?

2:29 And the number of times where it's just like why

2:32 is he just he's dribbling himself into trouble and then

2:35 the way to get out of it is to floa-

2:38 flare out a leg and then fall down on the ground?

2:43 I It's so unfortunate because he's so otherwise supremely talented.

2:49 We're not seeing the other stuff and palm my hand on a mon- montage.

2:53 You say mon- montage?

2:55 Listen.

2:57 It's not just this game.

3:00 The Pistons beat the Cavs in game one of their round two series last night.

3:06 Final score was Detroit winning by 10.

3:10 And Donovan Mitchell shot nine of 19 from the floor.

3:15 He got 10 trips to the free throw line, made only four of those.

3:19 So, you could do the math and how it might have

3:21 been different in the final score if he had a better night.

3:25 But, this was his comments after the game.

3:29 And um it's part and parcel of the new

3:33 conversation that's hitting all across the NBA right now.

3:38 The playoffs talking about flopping.

3:43 A friend of mine got fined for talking about flopping.

3:46 So, I'm not going to um try to double down,

3:48 but I mean like I feel like that's what I got to do at this point.

3:51 You know what I mean?

3:52 Like I'm trying to get downhill,

3:54 trying to get to the bucket and sometimes my I'm I'm my people in my way

4:00 and I'm trying to get fight through contact and I'm not getting these calls.

4:03 You said I had what?

4:03 Like 13 in the last series?

4:05 Like What?

4:06 16?

4:06 I mean I'm just not getting the calls.

4:10 I don't know why.

4:11 I don't flop.

4:12 Maybe that's why.

4:13 Um And this isn't just a tonight thing.

4:16 This has been the entire series and it's it's frustrating a little bit,

4:22 but cuz I'm such a dynamic driver, right?

4:25 Like but I can't control that.

4:30 Couple things here.

4:30 Number one, uh obviously he meant the entire playoffs,

4:34 not the entire series since it just started in game one.

4:36 And number two is you might guys may not

4:38 be aware cuz we don't usually hang out this way.

4:41 I'm a dynamic driver as well.

4:43 On the on the 405.

4:44 Oh, yeah.

4:45 Oh, man.

4:45 Yeah, I've seen you out there.

4:48 So, Donovan and I have a certain similarity.

4:49 I'm a dynamic driver.

4:51 Both hands on the wheel?

4:54 Uh Sometimes, you know, there's a there's a there's a hand on 10.

4:58 Yeah.

4:58 Dynamic driver, not at the American Century, but Uh in your car.

5:02 Let me stick to the jokes.

5:04 That was mean.

5:04 And you stick to not calling out my golf game, please.

5:07 Got it.

5:08 Netflix is a joke.

5:09 Thank you.

5:10 To do.

5:11 Tom Segura on Leader.

5:13 Listen.

5:16 It's a season-long problem.

5:20 And all I got to say is this.

5:22 Is it a player problem or is it an officiating problem?

5:28 Do they not see it?

5:29 Do they not know it?

5:30 Do they not probably break down all this film?

5:33 Don't they know who does it and who doesn't and how they do it?

5:37 Shouldn't they?

5:39 I I understand it's a very difficult job.

5:42 The speed, the power of the game,

5:44 it's very difficult to officiate to begin with.

5:48 I understand that.

5:51 But the number of times where it's just like It's not What are you doing?

5:57 obvious.

5:56 Shouldn't you if the guy falls down and try

6:00 and look for a call from you as a ref, shouldn't you be offended?

6:04 Like you're trying to dupe me into doing this sort of thing.

6:08 What would stop it?

6:09 What would stop it is what?

6:11 Not calling it would be number one.

6:15 Ding.

6:14 Number two would be When do we start

6:17 T'ing some people up for this sort of behavior?

6:19 Didn't they have I thought there was a rule Yeah, I thought there was a rule

6:22 in place where you could get fined or something.

6:24 Yeah, but I don't think I think it's when you're flopping as a defender.

6:29 Oh, you want it on offense?

6:30 YEAH.

6:31 WE'RE NOW getting to the point where it's time

6:33 to start T'ing people up for flopping on offense, too.

6:38 And not just on a three-point shot where

6:40 you're flaring your leg out to get contact.

6:42 Right, I hate that.

6:43 This stuff where it's like I'm in trouble.

6:46 Bail me out.

6:47 Thank you for bailing me out.

6:48 I'm going to the line for two.

6:50 Even though the other guy didn't touch me

6:53 and it's in the second quarter of a playoff game.

6:57 And because you as a league and an association do

7:01 not let coaches continue to challenge until they get one wrong.

7:06 If they get it right, they'll lose it by the end of the game because they

7:10 will not continue to stop this action over and over again.

7:14 Cuz it does require officials going to a podium

7:17 and let's see Steve Javie in that neat spot, you know,

7:21 where we can see television screens behind him and he's

7:24 in this replay center and here he is explaining what's going on.

7:27 And I know sometimes now they're doing what the NFL does,

7:29 which let's go to a commercial break and we come back,

7:31 we'll tell you what happened cuz we're not going to we're

7:34 not going to hold this thing up for another 3 minutes.

7:38 So, because there's not a lot of challenges to basically say, that was a flop.

7:44 He wasn't touched.

7:46 What are we doing?

7:48 And it is the only reason why I bring it

7:49 up again is because stars like Donovan Mitchell are saying,

7:53 I'm not a flopper so I'm not getting the calls.

7:55 And stars like Jaylen Brown are saying, there's an agenda here.

7:57 It happens all season long and the flopping's going all over the place

8:01 here and this is now replacing

8:02 the tanking conversation and if I'm the association,

8:05 I'm like, this is awful.

8:06 This is stupid.

8:07 And fans are beginning to get fed up with it.

8:11 Heaven forbid they vote with their remotes, I'm doing something about it.

8:15 We're calling the officials in and say,

8:17 you're on the lookout for this sort of thing.

8:20 And one way to also, um,

8:22 help out is let the coaches challenge as many

8:26 times as they want if they get it right.

8:30 And if you want to limit it, put it at five.

8:33 And I understand that would extend a game, stop the action, start it again.

8:38 Then figure out a way to do it faster.

8:42 Cuz this is getting out of hand.

8:43 kind of go straight to the top.

8:45 Let me ask you this, do you think we would have

8:47 the tanking issue and the flopping issue if David Stern were still alive?

8:51 Oh, don't do that.

8:52 No, I don't do that.

8:53 I I don't know.

8:54 I put this on Adam Silver, man.

8:56 I don't You could You could By the way,

8:57 you could mandate to the officials, stop calling this.

9:01 As much as I As much as I lament the tanking and this what they're doing,

9:09 let's try and fix it.

9:10 And this flopping stuff,

9:12 I think Adam Silver's an excellent steward for the game.

9:15 I really do.

9:17 And the fact that I mean,

9:18 David Stern is long gone and he did it He had an iron fist

9:21 way of doing things that we might look back on right now and miss.

9:26 Different times, different problems, different questions.

9:31 You know, what do you think players would flop less if

9:33 they think David Stern is watching it as opposed to Adam Silver?

9:35 Adam Adam doesn't want this stuff.

9:37 I think he's more tuned to it, too,

9:39 where it just I don't want this MVP star of the game coming off

9:43 of a playoff game having a bunch of memes and videos and that was

9:48 in the palm of my hand more than anything else last night cuz fans

9:52 are sick of it and want it stopped and the officials keep falling for it.

9:58 All of last night, I should say, point out, fair and balanced,

10:00 there were a couple on the montage where they play on.

10:03 Yeah, I'm watching looking at Play on.

10:05 And guess what happened with some of these play ons?

10:06 He didn't score 20.

10:09 No.

10:08 He didn't get to the free throw line.

10:11 And if Austin Reaves made some shots, I'm sorry to lay it on his feet,

10:14 and they didn't turn it over as much, and Marcus Smart made made some shots,

10:19 a closer game.

10:19 We would we might be talking about a different result because the officials

10:23 didn't call the the flopping to send SGA to the free throw line.

10:30 You know, I mean, uh Let me just take a look

10:33 just to make sure I'm I'm I'm on I'm spot-on here.

10:35 I mean, eight of he he was He took three free throws last night.

10:39 That's it.

10:41 Yeah.

10:41 Guys sometimes do that in two possessions.

10:43 Yeah, I mean, free throws were even, 13 to 12.

10:45 The Lakers had more, actually.

10:47 I understand that.

10:48 It was a bad night to make that argument because, like you said,

10:51 he wasn't getting a lot of these calls, but every every drive is a whoa.

10:57 You want Donovan Mitchell coming in saying,

10:58 "I'm not getting calls cuz I'm not a flopper like the rest of the league is.

11:01 Maybe I should start flopping." Says one of the best players in in the game.

11:06 Have some pride.

11:07 I I I I understand the players who Oh, I don't know, man.

11:10 engage in this philosophy.

11:12 you're you're the king of you ain't cheating you ain't trying sometimes.

11:15 Uh yeah, well, you also see how it looks.

11:20 Have some pride in how you play and how

11:22 you're you're presenting yourself on the on the court.

11:26 Right.

11:26 I don't know.

11:28 Whatever.

11:27 Uh I don't know.

11:28 But, we'll see if it it continues.

11:29 I I I do believe this conversation's only going to keep blossoming.

11:33 Hey, you made it all the way to the end.

11:35 Thanks for that.

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