Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Flopping Essay
Excellent essay on the less than ethical flopping style of defense that plagues the NBA.
I'd have to say I'm a firm believer in the Olajuwon-Cowens school of thought when it comes to playing defense.
There are two schools of thought on flopping. The Bradley school –which I would brand ethically challenged – sees such tactics as legitimate and integral to the so-called “game within the game.” There’s the game you play against the opposing team and a simultaneous cat-and-mouse contest with the refs. Painting misleading or even
grotesquely false pictures for the refs to get the whistles to go your way is the heart of this second game.
The Olajuwon-Cowens school – to which I proudly belong – sees basketball as a single game. It doesn’t see a “game within the game,” though it does see some bad apples who cheat. This school is baffled by and disgusted with an NBA hierarchy whose long silence on flopping implicitly condones and encourages cheating.
I'd have to say I'm a firm believer in the Olajuwon-Cowens school of thought when it comes to playing defense.
