We saw some incredible basketball being played in the NBA playoffs on Thursday, but unfortunately, there were a couple of egregious flops mixed in there as well by some of the biggest names. First, Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid flopped after attempting a three-pointer against the New York Knicks.
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— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) April 26, 2024
Embiid certainly doesn’t help himself with these acts and that flopper label on him will never really go away. There might have been a little bit of contact there from Mitchell Robinson’s left hand, but certainly not enough to warrant that reaction.
Embiid had 50 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block against the Knicks to lead the 76ers to a 125-114 win here, but a lot of the focus was on the flop and some plays he made which were termed as dirty. You just wish that a player as talented as him would avoid such acts.
LeBron James was the other superstar to be called out for flopping. James just dropped to the floor when Michael Porter Jr. went up for an offensive rebound to draw an offensive foul.
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— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) April 26, 2024
LeBron knew exactly what he was doing there. You can see him looking back and instead of trying to seal off Porter, he decided he was going to fall down the moment he felt some contact. As the X user mentioned, falling down has indeed become a very effective move. The officials keep falling for it and so the players will keep using it.
LeBron once claimed he needed to learn how to flop and he certainly seems to have figured that out. We also saw him resort to flopping when these teams met in the playoffs last year, as NBA fans roasted James for his shameless flop against Nikola Jokic. After that incident, even San Antonio Spurs big man Jeremy Sochan trolled LeBron by asking why he flops so much.
So many of today’s stars resort to flopping from time to time and the officials need to do a better job of recognizing when it happens. At least James wasn’t accused of making any dirty plays in this game like Embiid was.
Unfortunately for LeBron, he was also unable to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to victory, as the Denver Nuggets beat them 112-105 to take a 3-0 lead in the series. James recorded 26 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals, and a block, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Lakers from suffering an 11th straight loss to the Nuggets.
Bam Adebayo Praised Nikola Jokic For Not Flopping
There are fortunately some NBA stars who don’t flop around all the time and one of them is Embiid’s great rival, Nikola Jokic. Bam Adebayo called Jokic the hardest player to guard and praised him for not flopping.
“Gotta be the Big Fella, the Serbian. The thing that I most like about him is that he don’t flop. Guys try to sell calls, but other than that, he’s not trying to get 16-17 free throws. No. He’s trying to get buckets.”
Jokic does try to sell calls and I do believe he does flop occasionally, but nowhere near as often as Embiid does. It’s why he doesn’t get calls at the same rate as the 76ers superstar, but that doesn’t stop Jokic from having a big impact in games and leading the Nuggets to victory.
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