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Marcus Smart and the Blight of NBA Flopping

January 14th, 2017 · No Comments · Basketball, NBA

Americans hate floppers in sports.

It’s one reason that it took soccer so long to establish a toehold in the U.S. — all the guys who go down, writhing, grabbing at a knee or an ankle, after little (or no) contact.

Dark forces in the NBA have tried to bring those vile tactics into basketball, and at times it seems like they are succeeding.

Vlade Divac, a center who spent much of his career with the Lakers, was a master at flopping — or dramatically “taking a charge”, as it was known back among his fans, back in the 1990s.

One particular current player is taking NBA diving to a whole ‘nother level, and that man is Marcus Smart, a Boston Celtics guard.

Have a look at the YouTube compilation of five of Smart’s most egregious attempts to win free throws, a foul on the opposition, maybe even an ejection, by faking contact.

If this weren’t so alarming it might even be funny.

Look at Smart’s body of work …

His flopping ploys fall into two broad categories — falling/sailing as if he has been on the receiving end of a tremendous impact … or snapping his head back, and falling, any time an opponent in his zip code swings his elbows. Say, like after a rebound. What Smart does is act as if he has caught an elbow on his jaw.

All of this is B.S., of course, just as it nearly always is in soccer, too, where nearly every attacking player has been coached to go to the ground and writhe any time he feels contact.

The root of this is an attempt to cheat. A desire to make the officials/referee think he saw an infraction that never happened.

Some malefactors are more skilled than others in feigning contact and injury.

Marcus Smart is not one of those; despite his fond wish to succeed in cheating he has no subtlety. Overreacting is a goal of this kind of cheater, but not to the outlandish extremes that Smart embraces.

Perhaps the most ridiculous simulation on the video is the fifth (and final) non-foul. The one where he hurls himself out of bounds, while kicking a leg, as if Atlanta’s Kyle Korver had the power of Superman and just tossed poor Mr. Smart off the floor.

Smart was fined $5,000 by the NBA for that one.

He later told media that he was “just trying to make winning plays for my team”.

A chimera of a play, granted. A cheating play. But a play.

Smart was the man who added injury to insult last season when, while trying to simulate offensive contact on Matt Bonner, who was screening him, Smart swung a fist into Bonner’s groin. Smart was ejected.

His behavior speaks of a guy who knows he doesn’t do enough to ensure his place in the lineup (or even the league) without the sideline in cheating.

Where is David Stern when we need him? The former NBA commissioner rarely got worked up except when “flopping” was broached. He hated it more than empty arenas.

His successor, Adam Silver, does not seem to be as bothered.

Marcus Smart is a disgrace to his team and his league, and all his fakery — as well as that of others — should be reviewed and dealt with via suspensions.

It is no laughing matter, even if Smart does look like an idiot.

 

 

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