It's time to stop the flop.
It's one thing ruining this game.
Some players are more adept at flopping than at actual basketball skills.
Let's define "flop." A flop is any action which a player performs to make it appear as though he has been fouled, or fouled harder than the reality.
An example of the former is when a player rising for a shot has the ball stripped out of his hands cleanly but throws his arms into the air and screams like a baby, trying to attract a whistle.
An example of the latter is when an offensive player initiates contact with a defensive player, and the defender hurls himself backward as if he's been hit by the 3 o'clock Amtrak nonstop to Chicago.
If you've watched even one game, you've seen both of these.
Flopping is so common that the NBA is starting to look like — gulp! — soccer.
A few years ago I covered a short-lived pro soccer team here, and time and again watched players react to a minor trip as if they'd suddenly had their legs amputated at the knees.
Then they'd lie on the grass, moaning and clutching the wounded body part, until the referee (or whatever they call those guys in soccer) displayed a yellow or red penalty card, which I think means you don't get $200 when you pass "GO." Something like that.
Anyway, as soon as the card appeared, the mortally wounded player would miraculously revive, leap to his feet and start chasing the ball around with the other fellas, as if nothing had happened.
It disgusted me then, and it disgusts me in the NBA.
If I want to see somebody act, I'll go to a movie. Though not any movie starring Freddie Prinze Jr.
The worst offenders — at least since Doc Rivers retired — are Europeans.
Game officials in Europe must be incredibly nave, because European players in the NBA spend much of their on-court time trying to attract whistles for phantom offenses.
Sacramento's Vlade Divac is a perfect example. If he has never been nominated for the Yugoslavian Academy Award, or Oskar, or whatever they call it over there, there is no justice.
And then there's Portland's Arvydas Sabonis, a mountain of a man who will fall over at the slightest nudge from a 170-pound guard.
But they're not alone. Even the Jazz have some noteworthy floppers.
I've seen Karl Malone set a blind pick on an unsuspecting point guard and not even wince when the guard bounces off him at full speed.
Moments later, however, the same guard can put a forearm into Malone en route to the hoop, and the Mailman will hurtle backward, sliding 15 feet across the floor as if struck by a battering ram.
Sometimes, flopping backfires. Late in the last Portland game, the Blazers' Bonzi Wells drove into the lane and leaned into Bryon Russell slightly. Russell threw himself to the floor, allowing Wells an uncontested four-foot shot when there was no whistle. It was a crucial bucket in a close game.
Unfortunately, referees unwittingly support the whole flop phenomenon. Every time some gullible official falls for what appears to everyone else in an arena to be an obvious flop, it adds to the problem. It becomes positive reinforcement for players looking for any kind of edge.
Refs should know better. They should have enough common sense to recognize that Damon Stoudamire couldn't knock Malone into next week with anything short of a sledge hammer. They should have enough toughness to not reward someone like Sabonis with free throws every time he throws his tree-trunk arms into the air.
There's enough hacking going on already, enough ignored violations, that officials shouldn't be looking for offenses where there aren't any.
And players should have enough pride as to feel flopping is beneath them.