LAS VEGAS — Upon review, coaches will have more chances to ask for reviews.
The NBA’s Board of Governors approved two rule changes for the coming season Tuesday — one to give coaches a second challenge if their first one is successful, the other being a technical foul for flopping.
The challenge rule change is something that coaches have wanted for some time. Coaches who challenge a call and are successful will get the chance to make a second challenge — with one catch. Teams must have a timeout in order to call for a challenge; that timeout would not be retained even if a coach won that first challenge.
Players who flop — or are called for committing “a physical act that reasonably appears to be intended to cause the officials to call a foul on another player,” the league said — will be given a non-unsportsmanlike technical, which will not count as a personal foul or lead to ejection. But it will give the opposing team a free throw and could lead to a possession change, depending on when it is called.
Officials can choose to stop live play to call a flopping violation, or can wait until the next “neutral opportunity” to do so.
Floppers will be fined $2,000, with fines rising incrementally for repeat offenders. The flopping rule will be on a one-year experiment.
Both rule changes first got a unanimous recommendation from the NBA’s Competition Committee, composed of players, representatives from the National Basketball Players Association, coaches, governors, team basketball executives and referees.
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