The NBA's Most Notorious Floppers

This, from a player's poll:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Player-poll-rates-notorious-floppers-as-NBA-821?urn=nba-wp868

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1104/nba.biggest.flopper/content.1.html

Over the course of the last decade or so, flopping has become an increasingly popular tactic on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. In an important basketball game where every play counts, a few free throws or an offensive foul can be the difference between a win and a loss. Everyone looks for an edge, and flopping is just one way of grabbing one.

Some players flop enough, in fact, that they've gained reputations as the league's top floppers. So, not surprisingly, when Sports Illustrated ran an informal player poll asking for the NBA's biggest floppers, the results rounded up the usual suspects. From SI.com (via PBT), the top 10 (of 15), in order:

1. Anderson Varejao
2. Manu Ginobili
3. Luis Scola
4. Derek Fisher
5. Kevin Martin
6. Shane Battier
7. Jarron Collins
8. Raja Bell
9. Jose Barea
10. Andres Nocioni

Some observers argue that an influx of foreign players steeped in the culture of soccer have made flopping a legitimate tactic in the NBA, but it's interesting to note that, apart from the top three, this list isn't exactly full of foreign players -- in addition to No. 15 Sasha Vujacic(notes), six of the 15 players are foreign-born, and Barea may not count because he is from Puerto Rico and honed his craft over four years of NCAA ball at Northeastern. (Oh, and flopping is just as bemoaned by the foreign soccer press as it is in the NBA.) So, blame Europeans if you want, but it's not as if Derek Fisher learned how to flop his way to charge calls just because he saw Varejao do it once in 2005.

What's most interesting about this list, though, is that with the exception of Barea, a player poll from five years ago would have looked remarkably similar. These players flop, to be sure, but it's not as if no other NBA athletes have stepped up their flop game in the intervening seasons. Varejao and Ginobili earned their spots at the top of the list, yet they would find themselves in that position even if both seriously curtailed their flopping. Once you get a reputation, it's hard to shake it.

Still, the strength of reputations isn't the only thing that explains the lack of new faces on this list. As flopping has become a more common occurrence around the league, it's also become a more accepted part of NBA strategy. Take, for instance, the case of Thunder forward Nick Collison(notes), who's been lauded for his ability to take charges even though, like most NBA players, he surely flops on a good number of them. However, instead of being called a sissy who won't play like a man, Collison has been praised for his toughness. This isn't because he's any tougher than players who take similar amounts of charges -- it's just that Collison had the good fortune of becoming a charge-taking savant when the play was already widespread enough to be seen as a useful move and not the coward's way out of playing defense.

What this means, ultimately, is that Ginobili and Varejao will top lists like this one until they retire, because the league's newest floppers don't stand out much when the tactic becomes a more accepted fact of the NBA game. In fact, when the players on this list retire, it'll be interesting to see if these sorts of polls even exist anymore. It's hard to call out the league's most active floppers when coaches start teaching it as an aspect of proper defensive technique.

Numbers 11-15 are:

11. Reggie Evans
12. Corey Maggette
13. Kobe Bryant
14. Paul Pierce
15. Sasha Eurobitch

Sasha (not our Sasha) is ranked lower than Pierce and Kobe? WTF?

bob

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Bob,

Sorry, but I'd put Pierce higher. Flopping is primarily considered on the defensive side, and I don't consider Pierce a flopper on that side of the ball, but he has been one of the worst offenders of flopping offensively. After initiating contact or receiving minimal contact, he flails, throws his head back like he absorbed a heavyweight punch, stumbles, and/or falls. I think he does it less now, but he's done it a lot, for years.

I'll accept my punishment for blasphemy and go sit in the corner.

Outside

Of course the all time looser in the flopping contest was

MIKE NEWLIN

http://lexnihilnovi.blogspot.com/2009/03/dave-cowens-didnt-like-flipping.html

here is the piece:

Dave Cowens Didn't Like Flopping

Cowens thought a player who flopped to the court to draw a charge was the worst kind of cheat. So he once flattened Houston Rockets guard Mike Newlin in a violent but poignant demonstration. Newlin was a master of the flop. Twice in a game in 1976, Newlin drew charges on Cowens this way. So later in the game, an irate Cowens sprinted at Newlin, slamming him blind-side with both forearms and splattering Newlin along the floor.

``Now that's a FU**ING foul!'' Cowens told referee Bill Jones.

Cowens was branded a savage for that stunt, so he followed it up with a lengthy letter to the editor in the Boston Globe. Cowens wrote that ``fraudulent, deceiving and flagrant acts of pretending to be fouled when little or no contact is made is just as unsportsmanlike as knocking a player to the floor. ... This, in plain words, is what I call `cheating.'" Cowens forwarded copies of the letter to the NBA's supervisor of officials and Newlin. Newlin already got the message; he said Cowens' body-block still stung a month later.

beat

Trivia question. Who was the first flopper? What pro player basically invented the flop?

Sam

Dick Fosbury!

For my money, Vlade Divac was the worst flopper I've ever seen!-MD

The first NBA flopper was Frank Ramsey of the Boston Celtics. With Red's full approval, Frank became a master of drawing the charge on defense.

I have no idea who initiated the flop on offense, which I consider far more egregious. At least, when they do it on defense, there's usually some element of physical danger and some likelihood that it can backfire if not executed perfectly.

Sam

beat wrote:Of course the all time looser in the flopping contest was

MIKE NEWLIN

http://lexnihilnovi.blogspot.com/2009/03/dave-cowens-didnt-like-flipping.html

here is the piece:

Dave Cowens Didn't Like Flopping

Cowens thought a player who flopped to the court to draw a charge was the worst kind of cheat. So he once flattened Houston Rockets guard Mike Newlin in a violent but poignant demonstration. Newlin was a master of the flop. Twice in a game in 1976, Newlin drew charges on Cowens this way. So later in the game, an irate Cowens sprinted at Newlin, slamming him blind-side with both forearms and splattering Newlin along the floor.

``Now that's a FU**ING foul!'' Cowens told referee Bill Jones.

Cowens was branded a savage for that stunt, so he followed it up with a lengthy letter to the editor in the Boston Globe. Cowens wrote that ``fraudulent, deceiving and flagrant acts of pretending to be fouled when little or no contact is made is just as unsportsmanlike as knocking a player to the floor. ... This, in plain words, is what I call `cheating.'" Cowens forwarded copies of the letter to the NBA's supervisor of officials and Newlin. Newlin already got the message; he said Cowens' body-block still stung a month later.

beat

beat,

As I have stated in other earlier posts, I was there, at the Garden, for that.

2nd row, on the floor, a seat or two to the rigth side of the mid-court line. The demolition derby took place on the side of the court opposite me just to the left of mid-court, but you could see and hear it all from where I sat, from the poisonous glares of disgust Cowens sent Newlin's way, to the argument with the ref and, of course, the final jab at the ref.

bob

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MDCelticsFan wrote:For my money, Vlade Divac was the worst flopper I've ever seen!-MD

MD,

In Vlade's defense, he faced off against a young Shaq, especially when he was at Sacto, and the only effective defenses against Shaq were Hack-a-Shaq (which technically isn't much of a defense) and flopping. Trying to stand your ground against him just didn't work unless your goal was to become a grease spot on the court.

bob

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The nba's sneakiest flopper is gasol imho and het gets and gets and gets away with it.