Bob Ryan's 2014 memoir Scribe: My Life in Sports recounts a story that happened in 1976 but is very relevant to today's NBA game. Boston center Dave Cowens, former MVP and future Hall of Famer/Top 50 player, became incensed when scrappy Houston guard Mike Newlin was twice rewarded by the referees for flopping after Cowens made minimal to no contact with Newlin. Cowens responded by knocking Newlin over and then screaming to the nearest referee, "Now that's a foul."
At the time, Ryan did not care for Cowens' vigilante justice, and Ryan expressed his disapproval in his Boston Globe Sunday notes column. Cowens then sent a letter to Ryan, John Nucatola (the NBA's officiating supervisor), Larry Fleischer (executive director of the Players' Association), and Newlin. Cowens requested that his letter be published in the Boston Globe as a rebuttal to Ryan's piece, and the newspaper published the letter on March 14, 1976. Here is Cowens' letter, as reprinted in Scribe:
THE PURPOSE--To once and for all impress upon the referees, coaches, players and fans that fraudulent, deceiving and flagrant acts of pretending to be fouled when little or no contact is made, is just as outrageously unsportsmanlike as knocking a player to the floor. I would not and never have taught youngsters to play other than by the rules, morals, ethics and character of the game.
The following list are the reasons why I disagree with the acting that is going on in high school, college and professional basketball.
1. Pretending makes players think they can achieve their goal without putting in the work or effort that it takes to develop any skill or talent.
2. Hostilities arise among the players who are obviously being victimized by the actor's ability to make officials react instinctively to any flagrant, out-of-place action.
3. It distracts anyone who attends the game to study fundamental basketball skills and traits of the game, i.e. scouts, coaches, players, etc.
4. It arouses the ignorant fans who react vehemently to violent gestures or seemingly unsportsmanlike conduct (almost always on the home court of the actor) and can lead to minor uprisings, thrown articles on the court, etc.
5. If this practice continues unrestrained or the actor is allowed to utilize this fraudulent exercise successfully, it will gradually become an accepted strategy and will be taught to kids more enthusiastically by their coaches. After all, everyone wants to win and will take advantage of any ploy to do so. This way, a weak defensive player will have another method of getting by without having to learn how to learn how to play defense properly.
You may think I am exaggerating this point and I am sure the public is tired of hearing about this technicality, but I have noticed that the number of pretenders has risen over the past three or four years resulting in numerous invisible contact fouls being assessed. This happens especially when the fundamentally sound strategy of creating mismatches close to the basket, with the smaller player taking a dive because of the high percentage that the big man will score. Nowadays, some average defensive big men are taking to falling down unnecessarily to get the more skilled big men in foul trouble, leaving the better player at a disadvantage. This, in plain words, is "cheating."
As an articulate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic sports journalist, your comments on my being a terrific basketball player reinforced your expertise on the game (just kidding), but your observation that I must learn to act better is not in my repertoire.
I would appreciate receiving equal time on this matter and request that this letter be printed unedited in the Boston Globe. As I once told you, I believe it is your responsibility to report the facts and your opinions are note-worthy, but this is an issue of principle and whether or not you agree with me has little to do with the respect that I have for you and the contributions you have made to the Boston sports scene.
The NBA needs more players who play--and think--like Dave Cowens. He is correct that flopping is cheating, and that is one reason why I am much less impressed by James Harden than other people are; from my perspective, the many free throws that he has received for tricking NBA referees are not proof of his skill, but proof that the league rewards cheating and shortcuts over fundamentals and hard work. That is not to say that Harden has no fundamental skills or that he has not worked hard on some aspects of his game, but I would be much more entertained by Cowens flattening a flopping Harden then I would be by seeing Harden add two (and often three) unearned points to his scoring totals.
Harden is far from the only flopper--unfortunately--but I can think of no player who has benefited as much from flopping as he has.
That's the article: Flopping is Cheating
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