NEW YORK – The NBA Development League will begin assessing technical fouls for flops, a new rule that goes further than the NBA one by punishing the act during a game.
The NBA began to issue punishments last season for flopping, the art of exaggerating contact to deceive referees into calling a foul, but only retroactively. If a player is determined to have flopped after a postgame review, he is given a warning for the first offense and a $5,000 fine for the second.
Under the NBA D-League system that begins Thursday and runs through the end of the season, referees will note when they believe a flop occurred, then confirm it via instant replay at the next timeout or quarter break. If confirmed, the free throw will be shot at that time.