T's for Flopping?
 

So how many if you all have given a T for flopping? I came close to it, but found it hard to justify

It's actually a T for "faking being fouled."
Why hard to justify?

I've called it once, in a 5th grade YMCA game. I'd warned the kid once, and not 45 seconds later he did it again. He flew backwards when the ball handler was about 5 or 6 feet away. Easy call.

The instances I had last night weren't that easy, hence the borderline nature. Wish I could have had an easier call, the kids were mouthing off a ton

I gave one in a Varsity HS summer camp game. Camp was at Lipscomb Univ. in TN. The player's team was from Alabama. Player had LGP, opponent near end of drive pulled up for jump shot, defender flopped and grunted loudly rolled around like gut shot. Reported T, coach asked for clarification, I gave it. He said "in 36 years of Basketball I have never seen that call." I said "better to see it in camp ball than a regular season game." He agreed and yelled at player, "this is not acting class, stay on your feet and play defense." :)

There's your T right there.

In my opinion it has to be obvious and probably no contact for me to call it. But often there is contact and you have to make a judgment. Embellishing is different than faking in my opinion. Most of the time you see an embellishment of the contact, not a complete faking.

Peace

I agree with Rut on this. Usually these players actually think they got fouled but want to embellish to prove it. Other times, they're merely bracing for contact. Sometimes, by bracing too quickly, they end up moving out of the way and there's no contact. You need more than just falling down to get the technical foul, usually. Limbs flailing and grunting would likely need to be involved as well.

I agree, wholeheartedly. It can be very difficult to judge an embellishment. I have not called a T for this, yet. I have given warnings to players and their coaches -- no different than a player committing a borderline intentional foul near the end of a game.

I typically tell the player to "make a basketball play" (stole that quote from an official a while back). Make sure you are reacting to contact -- not hoping that there is.

I've called it once in a major summer girl's tourney on a girl on the team leading by about 50 points with about 2 minutes left in the game. It was about the 5th time she'd fallen backwards with a good 2 feet worth of distance between her and the driving offensive player. I wanted to prove a point to the coach. He had no problem with it.

Only thing I might have done different is warn the coach earlier in the game that she was doing it and give him a chance to handle it.

O they got one after I called travelling when a kid caught the ball, hopped, then jumped to shoot...kid couldn't believe it.