Watch Chris Paul fall down against the Thunder

UPDATE: I asked NBA PR man Tim Frank about flopping and he said, “Flopping has been discussed amongst the competition committee many times in the past but there are no plans to make any changes in this area.”

I’m moving on from the Chris Paul stuff. Promise. After this.

Flopping is absolutely part of the game and some might see it as a smart play. You can get your team in the bonus faster, put fouls on another player and potentially force a turnover or get two free throws. If it works, why not do it?

But flopping is one of the reasons Americans hate soccer so much. There’s just no honor in it. Instead of playing the game straight up, you resort to cheap tactics to try and put fouls on someone. Maybe it’s gamesmanship, maybe it’s a clever, savvy move. Or maybe it’s just chump. (Then again, one might be able to apply that same sentence to KD’s “rip move” as well. I see a flop and the rip as two different things entirely though.)

Flopping is absolutely within the rules. It’s fair to do. The game moves so fast that it’s hard for officials to really see what happens. That’s why flopping works. A player fakes a foul, goes sprawling on the floor and he gets a whistle. To me though, it’s dishonorable. There’s a difference in flopping in the open floor by crumbling to the floor with no contact and someone falling down on a driving layup attempt. Both are trying to draw fouls, yes. But one is creating the illusion that there was a foul by acting and exaggerating, the other is a common thing when players go flying into the lane.

In the end, Chris Paul is still an awesome basketball player. Maybe the best point guard in the game. But he has a reputation for this stuff, as well as taking cheap shots. I just don’t understand why a player of his caliber resorts to it. Other players flop and fall. Heck, when Nick Collison takes a charge most of the time the force of the offensive player isn’t enough to actually bull him over. But it’s just not the same as sprawling out at halfcourt trying to put a ticky-tack foul on Westbrook.

Flopping is part of the game and it’s not going anywhere. But there’s a reason you only see a select few players do it. It’s one of those unwritten things you don’t do and if do use it, you take a hit for it. Like Chris Paul has in my mind.