(Photo by Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)
The NBA has finally decided to crack down on flopping.
This has been an ever-lasting issue and one of the many reasons why old-school fans don’t seem to buy into today’s game as much as they used to.
The league has decided to call a technical foul on the player who flops, rewarding the rival team with a free throw.
Notably, we finally got a chance to see this new rule being enforced in real-time, with Jaden Shackelford going down in NBA history as the very first player to get a technical foul for flopping.
Jaden Shackelford got hit with a technical foul for flopping in the Grizzlies vs. Thunder Summer League matchup.
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Shackelford, who’s currently playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Summer League squad, was given the tech after obviously exaggerating contact, as the Memphis Grizzlies’ player’s elbow didn’t even hit his face.
Of course, this rule is only going to make the game better as long as the referees actually call it evenly and objectively, which is obviously going to be another major issue.
Superstars are still likely to get superstar treatment, just like it happens every single time they pretend to get fouled to get to the line.
Draymond Green, James Harden, Joel Embiid, Marcus Smart, Trae Young, LeBron James, and many other players have become kind of infamous for their constant tendency to flop, and it remains to be seen how often they’ll be penalized for this.
Hopefully, this will level the playing field a little, as some of the flops have been so blatantly obvious and hilarious that most fans simply cannot tell how the refs missed them.
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