New York – The NBA Board of Governors today approved expanding the game-flopping penalty and coaching challenge. Both rule changes will be implemented beginning in the 2023-24 NBA season.
Penalty for flopping in-game
Under the new rule, when a game official calls a foul — or a physical action that appears to justify calling another player a foul — an unsportsmanlike technical foul is charged on the offending player and the opposing team is awarded a free throw attempt, which any player in the game can attempt when the technical foul is assessed. . A player shall not be ejected from the game based on violation violations.
Umpires do not need to stop live play to call a flopping violation. If necessary (for example, to avoid stopping direct play when the offensive team has an immediate scoring opportunity), officials will wait until the next neutral opportunity to stop direct play to award a flopping penalty. After a penalty free throw, the league’s restart play principles apply, meaning that the team in actual or immediate possession when play was stopped is awarded possession when play resumes.
Officials may call both a foul and a missed violation on the same play.
A failed violation is not directly reviewed by the challenger. However, referees may call a foul by a coach’s challenge-induced foul review or certain types of fouls (possible foul, block-charge call, end-period referee-initiated review foul or clear lane foul, etc.).
The league office’s ability to assess losses after a game remains intact. New for the 2023-24 season, the monetary penalty system for flaps has been modified to reflect technical fouls, with fines starting at $2,000 and increasing for repeat offenders.
Violations called by the officials in real time do not count towards the infringement penalty or the post-game financial penalty system. When a foul is called by the referees, the opposing team is awarded a free throw attempt, which is a contest penalty in a single penalty game.
The new in-game flopping penalty will be in effect on a one-year trial basis.
Expanded use of the trainer challenge
The coaches’ challenge has been expanded to offer teams a second challenge if their first challenge is successful.
A team must continue to use timeouts to trigger a challenge, meaning a team cannot use its first or second challenge if time has yet run out. In addition, a team may successfully continue the Challenge following the deadline used to initiate their first challenge and not trigger a mandatory deadline. For reasons of game length and game flow, a team does not retain the time limit used to start its second challenge even if the challenge is successful.
The NBA’s competition committee — players, representatives of the National Basketball Players Association, coaches, governors, team basketball administrators and referees — unanimously recommended to the Board of Governors both a game loss penalty and an expansion of the coaching challenge.