The N.B.A. Playoffs: A Showcase of Beautiful Basketball, Upsets, and Flopping

The 2023 N.B.A. playoffs featured not just beautiful basketball, upsets, and dominance, but also flopping by players of all stripes, even LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and Kyle Lowry. Malik Monk, the Sacramento Kings’ sixth man, was also guilty. They all engaged in desperate attempts to deceive referees into calling fouls, making the playoffs look like the National Basketball Floppers Association.

However, flopping isn’t a new phenomenon. The Boston Celtics’ Red Auerbach, the team’s legendary and curmudgeonly leader, railed against the “Hollywood acting” that ruined the game in the 1970s.

Anthony Gilardi, a Hollywood acting coach, claimed that N.B.A. floppers’ overacting is hilarious and cringe-worthy. He suggested that players create an illusion that a foul has occurred by reacting to contact instead of being so obvious that every fan can tell the reaction is fake. In other words, players should act like Oscar nominees rather than soap opera actors.

Gilardi suggested several improvements to players’ flopping techniques, such as fully immersing themselves in the part and milking it for all its worth, even limping after the foul has been called. He also urged players to fake an injury convincingly and focus on subtlety to create the illusion successfully. By taking these steps, the tricks will not embarrass officials or raise howls from fans, cackling criticism from television analysts or a clampdown by the suits in the league office.

Gilardi believes that a world exists where some of these flops would be so good that they may not be considered flops, proving that they are good acting. However, today’s players cannot seem to help themselves, as flopping is so pervasive in the playoffs that even the billionaire owner of the Phoenix Suns, Mat Ishbia, took a courtside dive. Even Golden State Coach Steve Kerr made a personal plea to end the games of fooling the refs.

While Kerr’s solution is to have N.B.A. referees copy international game officials and call technical fouls against floppers, it might not be practical. Referees already struggle to call a simple travel, how then will they decide, in real-time, whether a foul was genuine or hardwood chicanery? Back in 2010, the league began issuing $5,000 fines to flopping players, but it did not deter those who wanted to win. In addition, the flop now seems to be baked into the N.B.A., simultaneously showcasing athleticism, skill, a thirst for winning, and showmanship.

Instead of resisting and demonizing the flop, it might be better to embrace it and insist on better acting. For example, during Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, Nikola Jokic and LeBron James gave back-to-back theatrics. James’ flop, even though Jokic barely brushed him, was quite dramatic: His face contorted into a grimace. He twisted his 6-foot-9, 250-pound body, backpedaled, leaped backward and slid halfway across the width of the court until he landed at the feet of courtside spectators, spilling the drink of one who offered him a towel. The flop worked, and Jokic got a foul. With Jokic and the Denver Nuggets playing so well in getting their team to the franchise’s first N.B.A. finals, the idea of stopping them from flopping seems like pure theater.