Oklahoma City Thunder: Thunder players pleased with NBA's new 'flopper' rule

“Flops have no place in our game — they either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call,” NBA executive vice president/basketball operations Stu Jackson said in a statement. “Accordingly, both the Board of Governors and the Competition Committee felt strongly that any player who the league determines, following video review, to have committed a flop should — after a warning — be given an automatic penalty.”

Bulky Thunder center Kendrick Perkins consistently ranks among the league leaders in technical fouls and wouldn't dare lower himself to flopping.

“(Flopping) just takes away from the game, man,” said the 6-foot-10, 262-pound Perkins. “It's one thing to take charges and put your body in the way like Nick does for our team all the time. That's the sacrifice because a lot of guys won't sacrifice their bodies to really get hit.

“You see guys who (will) be flopping all the time and not really getting hit when you have guys who really taking hits who have bruised ribs and cracked ribs or whatever out there taking a punishment. You have guys out there flopping. It's just bad for the game. Bad for the game and I'm glad we are finally making a stand on it.”

Though Thunder players overwhelming favor the new rule, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced Wednesday it plans on filing a grievance and an unfair labor practice charge challenging the rule.

NBPA executive director Billy Hunter said in a statement: “The NBA is not permitted to unilaterally impose new economic discipline against the players without first bargaining with the union. We believe that any monetary penalty for an act of this type is inappropriate and without precedent in our sport or any other sport. We will bring appropriate legal action to challenge what is clearly a vague and arbitrary overreaction and overreach by the Commissioner's office.”