NBA Board of Governors approves in-game penalty for flopping

The NBA Board of Governors approved two new gameplay changes for the 2023-24 season, including an in-game penalty for flopping.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, a flopping penalty will now result in a technical foul free throw.

“Under the new rule, when a game official calls a flop – or a physical act that reasonably appears to be intended to cause the officials to call a foul on another player – the offending player will be charged with a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul… The opposing team will be awarded one free throw attempt. Which could be attempted by any player who is in the game when the technical foul is assessed,” the NBA wrote in a press release. “A player will not be ejected from a game based on flopping violations.

“Referees will not be required to stop live play to call a flopping violation. If necessary, the officials will wait until the next neutral opportunity to stop live play to administer the flopping penalty. After the penalty free throw, the league’s resumption of play principles will apply. Meaning that the team with actual or imminent possession when play was stopped will be awarded possession when play resumes.

“It is possible that the officials could call both a foul and a flopping violation on the same play. A flopping violation will not be directly reviewable by a Coach’s Challenge. However, the referees could call a flop via replay review of a called foul triggered by a Coach’s Challenge or referee-initiated replay review of certain types of called fouls [such as a potential flagrant foul, block-charge call, end-of-period foul or clear-path foul].”

NBA makes major change to coach’s challenge rule

In addition, an alteration has been made to the challenge rule, which the league first implemented in 2019. If a coach’s challenge is successful, a second coach’s challenge will be awarded.

“The Coach’s Challenge has been expanded to award teams a second Challenge if their first Challenge is successful. A team must continue to use a timeout to trigger a Challenge,” the NBA wrote. “[Meaning] a team will not be able to use its first or second Challenge unless it still has a timeout available. In addition, a team will continue to retain the timeout used to initiate its first Challenge if the Challenge is successful and did not trigger a mandatory timeout. 

“For game length and game flow reasons, a team will not retain the timeout used to initiate its second Challenge. Even if the Challenge is successful.”

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