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Remember a few years ago when the NBA made a big deal out of trying to eliminate flopping? Multiple players were given public warnings and a few were even fined after repeated violations.
Then, as quickly as it became a hot topic to discuss it pretty much vanished. The last player to receive a public warning was Michael Carter-Williams, all the way back in January 2017. Well, that is, until Thursday afternoon, when the league gave Marcin Gortat a warning for this flop early in Tuesday’s game against the Spurs:
This isn’t Gortat’s first run-in with the anti-flop police. He was fined $5,000 after picking up his second flop violation during the 2014-15 season. If he violates the rule again this season, he will incur the same fine.
It’s a little odd Gortat is getting singled out here when there are still plenty of floppers out there, but it’s really hard to ignore how egregious that flop is. At the same, we respect the hustle. If you’re going to make the league dust off a rule they haven’t enforced in over a year, do it big.