No One Likes An Actor

Thespians have no place in basketball denounced the NBA. Fines are in store for those who do. Catching a flopper is what the NBA is talking about. There seems to be a growing national sentiment from officials to catch these evil players. You know the players that grunt and then fall down purposely to draw an offensive charge. But making fines to curb this behavior might be a detriment to proper defense.

Vlade Divac was the NBA's best flopper when he played in the NBA. The European star made a career of drawing the offensive charge. But officials became irritated when he would put in an extra acting at the end of the play. NFL place kickers do the same. When brushed by defensive players trying to block a kick or punt they may put on an academy award here and there. Are the NFL kickers next to be handed fines? No one likes to be played a fool nowadays. It shows up the referees and mocks the official's intelligence. However, some really good coaches teach their players at a very young age the art of taking an offensive charge. Now it may seem simple, but how many times in a men's league game have you seen it? Never, right. For one thing, many men who play never were taught to take a charge, secondly, referees hesitate to call an offensive foul. You can tell a real good player or a player that has played the sport seriously just by his ability to take a charge.

The proper way is to avoid falling on your back or hitting your head on the floor. A player is supposed to fall on your biggest muscle (buttocks) in a sit down fashion and slide back. However, the biggest part of the technique is giving a little ground when you feel contact. Because if you are too rigid, you could get a size 14 in your neck or worse fall straight on your back and head. There is a fine line between giving and flopping. We have heard from referees say; "he did not stand his ground, and he gave in too much". There fore the referee called it a flop and did not give the player the offensive charge. Now you wonder why taking a charge is becoming a lost art. Referees should go to a camp that teach taking a charge and see the physics involved in the art. It is not easy to stay rigid and not give in. Defensive basketball coaches constantly preach the mantra; "beat your man to the spot or lane". Instead players now try to go up and challenge the shooter and fouling the hand and arms instead. This technique has lead to great drivers and dunkers in the NBA. This is the very reason there are less pull up jumpers or pull up jump shooters in the NBA, college and high school. Nowdays the mentality is I don't want to stop and pop, but I'll go over my man because it looks spectacular. That is what the NBA wants, even though this drive is technically an offensive charge. Many times the offensive player does not go over his defender but through him. Now if his quad, knee or foot knocks the defensive player down don't you think that should be called an offensive foul? Sure we don't need the thespians but we should not take away the great defensive efforts of players.

Beating the offense to the spot should be rewarded, these fines only encourages lazy defense and rewards offensive players that do not know how to stop on a dime with a two foot jump stop.