Steve Kerr makes ‘personal plea’ in hopes that the NBA mirrors the way FIBA deals with flops

Just as Golden State fell to the Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals earlier this week, coach Steve Kerr noted that he witnessed plenty of flops and gamesmanship from his rival team, and wanted to see the game film. The next day he told reporters that he stands by his statement, and requests the NBA to deal with these types of situations the same way that FIBA does. 

“I think, to me, what I’ve learned coaching in FIBA … There’s a flop rule,” Kerr said to the press on Tuesday, as he made a ‘personal plea’ to the NBA hoping for an eventual change in the rule book that mirrors that of the International Basketball Federation.

Steve Kerr would like to see the NBA address its flopping issue and suggests implementing rules similar to FIBA pic.twitter.com/yqg98IPnua

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 10, 2023

“If a referee deems a player has flopped, they just call it a technical foul, and it’s pretty penalizing. And so the flopping has basically been eliminated from FIBA, and we have the ability to do the same thing in the NBA if we want,” he explained further.

The Warriors head coach believes players are constantly trying to manipulate the officials in their favor and it is detrimental to the sport.

“I think we should address it, because the players are so smart, and the entire regular season is about gamesmanship and trying to fool the refs,” Kerr said. “And this is how it’s been for a while, and it’s up to us as a league. Do we want to fix this?

“These are all things that are my personal plea to the NBA. I think we can do better in terms of cleaning up the flopping. In the meantime, I give the Lakers credit for the plays that they’ve been able to sell.”

Free-throw discrepancy has been talked about all throughout this semifinal series

Throughout the whole series against the Los Angeles side, the free-throw discrepancy has been an issue, especially as the purple and gold team have been given twice as much opportunities from the charity stripe. The Lakers have been given 103 chances from free throws, as Golden State has only had 51.

“There was definitely some gamesmanship, and, look, I give them credit,” the head coach said before Game 5. “If you can sell a call in this league and do it, then you do it — whatever it takes to win.

“Like I said, you give them credit, but you lament the fact that, as a league, we’re going to reward that type of play with — the game and the series and all that stuff’s at stake, you would hope that officials would recognize when a guy just takes a dive.”

After the Warriors beat the Lakers in Game 5, LeBron James was asked on his thoughts over coach Kerr’s request to the NBA.

“I just know that we, the coaching staff and us players, don’t work on flopping, it’s not even a part of our game. Our plan is to attack the paint,” he said. “We dont mind the contact. We actually like the contact, we don’t shy away from it.”

It remains to be seen if the league takes Kerr’s plea into consideration, but be that as it may, his request seems to come from a place that would genuinely make the league even healthier and more just.