Hall of Famer Chris Webber Weighs In on the NBA’s Frustrating Flopping Problem

Chris Webber took the longest swing of his appearance on the show at the topic everybody is now arguing about. Jaylen Brown sparked the flopping conversation. Webber went well past the spark.

"I hate flopping," Webber told Rich. "And I played with players that flopped. I hate it."

He traced the move's origin back to European soccer arriving in the NBA, and he believes that for a long time the league's referees refused to take it seriously. Then he made the point that anybody mid-collapse should sit with.

"You can't say when you lost 3-1 when you were up 3-0," Webber said, before adding the line that landed harder. "Somebody's accused of too many players flopping doesn't have a leg to stand on himself."

Asked where the blame really belongs, Webber put the larger share on officiating.

"I put it on the officials to officiate the game," he said. "A guy like Shaq couldn't flop, and I think he paid for it because we could hit him harder and tear him up."

The standard Webber wanted to introduce came from his own childhood.

"If my dad was in the room, I wouldn't let a guy weigh 100 pounds more push me and fall on the floor and flop," he said. "I'd be embarrassed in front of my pops."

His characterization of the league-wide problem was direct.

"It looks like WWF," Webber said. "Players are just too good for it. It's already hard enough to play the game."

Rich offered a specific case study. After Oklahoma City's Game 1, his timeline was a montage of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hitting the floor untouched, not a montage of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander making shots. SGA only went to the line three times that game, which Rich said tells you the referees did, at moments, let plays go on.

Rich also floated a fix. The NBA already penalizes flopping on defense. Why not match it on offense? Hand out technicals.

Webber liked the proposal, then drew the line between two things people conflate.

"Embellishing is fine," Webber said. "Flopping is much more egregious than embellishing contact. It's a fine line and it's happening fast."

He thinks referees are mostly trying to do their job, and he wants them to let more plays breathe.

"A couple of calls, you need to let guys be embarrassed," Webber said. "Because it wasn't a flop. And say, get back up."

The fan in him, more than the player, asked for one thing.

"All you want is consistency," he said. "I don't want to know the movie before it happens."