NBA's new idea...a flop?

Alright, how exactly is the NBA going to enforce their new rule?

Basically the NBA is going to start fining players for flopping. All this comes on the wake of about 23 hours and 57 minutes of constant discussion on ESPN about whether Brent Barry should have jumped into Derek Fisher to get a foul call (the other 3 minutes of coverage were divided between the cracked foot of Big Brown and a profile of former spelling bee "icon" Samir Patel)

Flopping has been a problem in the NBA for a while, and we all know it, ever since the great Vlade Divac started the tradition when he suited up for the kings. No other NBA issue, besides the referees, is talked about more on fan blogs and sports talk radio more than the flop and its non-place in the game of basketball. So in theory this new "rule" should be great, a player blatantly flops and he'll get fined...great!

Here's the problem with this new "Rule". The flop is used to draw a foul call, normally either a charge or a hack, sometimes the ref calls it sometimes they don't...it's a judgment call. the only thing that this new "rule" is going to do is shift the judgment to someone else. The NBA will tell its refs to crack down on floppers in the off-season, but otherwise the new "rule" won't change the way the game is officiated, so it really doesn't change a thing.

The fines will more then likely be small enough that the players that use the flop as part of their game (I'm looking at you Tony Parker) won't change their game, the only thing that will do that is if after a certain amount of fines there are suspensions. But even then how do you determine what is a, and I'm quoting the story, "serial flopper" is flopping or actually fouled. I think it's idiotic to substitute one person's judgment for anothers and call it a solution.

And otherwise, how can the NBA be able to put "in-arena observers" at every game to search out floppers, when MLB can't put one more person at games to watch replays to get the calls right?