Reggie Evans with the season’s most obvious flop (VIDEO)
Most basketball fans are no fans of flopping, and some even treat it as a pervasive threat to the sport itself. TrueHoop's ever-vigilant HoopIdea crew has a campaign to "Stop the Flop," and they've instituted a "Flop of the Night" award to draw attention to the most egregious offenses. Yet the trouble with flopping, in most instances, is that it's difficult to tell what's real and what's play-acting in the moment. It's hard to stop an epidemic that can't always be accurately diagnosed.
On Sunday night, Los Angeles Clippers Reggie Evans performed a flop that everyone identified as such immediately. With 1:41 remaining and the Clippers up 100-96 over the visiting New Orleans Hornets, Evans set a characteristically tough pick on guard Greivis Vasquez at midcourt. Vasquez responded with a light forearm to the chest, at which point Evans fell back as if he'd been struck with the force of a thousand battering rams. The officials initially called it a flagrant-2 foul, but after checking the replay they downgraded it to a perfectly normal personal foul. I cannot remember that ever happening in an NBA game.
Evans has a reputation for flopping, but someone who does it as often as he does should probably have his technique down better. The key to a good flop, apart from earning a foul call, is to have everything happen so quickly that no one can tell which action caused the fall. Otherwise, you just look like a big fat cheater.
(Video via EOB)
