It isn’t NBA awards season yet, but the Nets are already accumulating accolades. In honor of the NBA’s new anti-flopping policy instituted last October, SI’s Ben Golliver handed out his “flopping centric year-end awards,” or “Floppies.” As a team, the Brooklyn Nets won “Floppers of the Year.”
Here’s what he had to say:
“Floppers of the year (team): Nets. Brooklyn holds two important distinctions: It is the only franchise to have three players warned for flopping (Reggie Evans, Gerald Wallace and C.J. Watson) and two players fined for a second warning (Evans and Wallace). Honorable mention goes to the Clippers, who had two players warned (Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups) — and many (including Jeff Van Gundy) would argue deserved a third; the Rockets, who had one player warned twice (Omer Asik) and another warned once (Patrick Patterson, now with the Kings); and the Timberwolves, who also had one player warned twice (J.J. Barea) and another warned once (Ricky Rubio).”
In addition to the team award, two Nets also made the countdown of the top 10 flops of the year. Coming in at number nine, Gerald Wallace’s full-on assault of the court after LeBron James grazed Crash with his right arm. James may be an athletic freak, but even I could have stood my ground after that love tap. As Golliver points out, even tough guys can flop: “Wallace has suffered through countless concussions and a punctured lung during his career, proving that the toughest of tough guys can be fibbers, too.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHNHbDxf0q0]
Reggie Evans, The league’s chairman of the boards and flopmaster general, clocked in at number six for his mid-court standing flop against Metta World Peace of the Los Angeles Lakers. After grabbing a rebound in the November game in L.A., Evans briefly and inexplicably goes into point-forward mode. Then, as Golliver describes it:
“Moments after passing the ball, Evans absorbed slight contact to his left side from World Peace that caused him to run off-kilter, throw both arms in the air and bob his head. That half-hearted, half-loony action earned a foul call on World Peace and a classic “That’s a flop!” lip read shot from Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QxouABTC6o]
As an aside, only one of the Nets five flopping dings came under Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo; Watson’s flop on the Wolves JJ Barea back in January.
Read More: Sports Illustrated, Ben Golliver — The Floppies: Ranking the 10 most ridiculous dives of the season
Related: In Celebration of Reggie Evans
