NBA Makes Flopping a Priority Ahead of Upcoming Season
The NBA has declared "stopping the flop" a priority for the upcoming season, as demonstrated by a technical foul called on Jalen Brunson for embellishing contact from Rudy Gobert during a preseason game. The league is working to differentiate between…
Marquette, MI, October 14, 2026 —
The NBA has identified “stopping the flop” as a priority for the upcoming season, with a preseason technical foul against Jalen Brunson illustrating the issue the league is addressing.
Brunson was called for a technical foul after embellishing contact from Rudy Gobert during a preseason game. The call brings attention to the league’s effort to distinguish between acceptable player embellishment and illegal flopping. The summary of the incident does not provide further details about the play or the officials’ explanation for the ruling.
The distinction is central to the stated priority: the league is not described as seeking to penalize every instance of embellishment, but as working to separate conduct it considers acceptable from flopping it considers illegal. No specific criteria for making that distinction were provided.
The available information also does not identify the date or location of the preseason game, the season involved, or whether the league has announced any rule changes or enforcement procedures. It does not say whether Brunson or the Knicks commented on the call, or whether the technical foul led to any additional action.
For now, the Brunson-Gobert play is a concrete example of the issue accompanying the NBA’s stated focus. How the league will consistently distinguish between the two types of conduct remains unclear from the information available. The details provided establish the priority and the call, but do not describe how the league plans to apply that distinction during the upcoming season.
Story summarized from the original created by Steve Brownlee on www.miningjournal.net, see more information here.
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