NBA Urged to Adopt FIFA-Style Replay Rule as Flopping Fines Average 7-8 a Season

2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 13

A proposal published Saturday calls for the NBA to let replay officials rescind a wrongly called foul and immediately assess a flopping technical on the offensive player.
The push follows Friday’s USA-Paraguay World Cup match, where VAR overturned Tim Ream’s yellow card and booked Miguel Almiron for simulation in the first World Cup use of FIFA’s mistaken-identity rule.
Under the suggested NBA version, reviews would focus on shooting fouls, potential sixth fouls, the final 2 minutes and coach’s challenges, with penalties such as a free throw and possession.
Current enforcement is portrayed as too weak: publicly documented postgame flopping violations since 2012 total roughly 100-120, or about 7-8 warnings and fines per season, while Malik Monk’s $2,000 fine is the only clearly documented 2025-26 case cited.
The broader argument is that real-time punishment would deter players more effectively than rare fines or no-calls, especially in a league where contact judgments often decide possessions.

Sources

After FIFA’s VAR stopped a diver, will the NBA finally adopt a real-time punishment for its flopping problem?

Now that VAR can instantly punish simulation, will players simply find cleverer ways to deceive officials?

The historic VAR call took three minutes. Can technology make football fairer without killing the game's flow?

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