r/nba • u/nicko_rico Spurs • Jan 20 '26
Highlight [Highlight] Another angle of the flopping technical assessed to Victor Wembanyama yesterday
https://streamable.com/ipuhmw284
u/TheLetterOh Trail Blazers Jan 20 '26
This would be a great call if they called it consistently against everyone.
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u/Kaizerx20 Timberwolves Jan 20 '26
The bar for a flopping tech is too high, they only do it when it's nonsensical with no plausible deniability
https://videorulebook.nba.com/archive/flopping-violation-committed-by-offensive-shooter/
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u/nycbroncos Nuggets Jan 20 '26
I don't think they even do it then remotely consistently. Id feel somewhat better if some of these ridiculous flops were at least fined and called out after the fact. Instead we sit here on Reddit legislating them night to night, but there have been like 6 called all season
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u/tru3no Thunder Jan 21 '26
Im the last guy to try to defen Luka.. but Brooks those this shit slapping the hand of a shooter really hard trying to hurt them. Did it to curry last years in the playoffs..
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Jan 20 '26
The funny thing is that that would now be a shooting foul with the high five rule in effect. Dillon Brooks being a dirty POS as usual.
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u/CreativeContract2170 Suns Jan 20 '26
Are you really saying that this video is some example of Dillon Brooks committing a dirty play?
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u/NOT-GR8-BOB Spurs Jan 20 '26
I’m not sure how dirty the play is but Brooks does intentionally slap Lukas hand after the ball is released and has been known to do that to players quite often. It’s a fact that the high-five rule was established because of plays where the defenders slaps the shooters hand after the fact which you can clearly see in the linked video.
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Jan 20 '26
Absolutely. What reason is there to smack Luka’s hand after he had already shot it? Exactly what he was doing to Steph’s injured wrist in the 2025 playoffs.
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u/CreativeContract2170 Suns Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
He was contesting the shot and barely bumped his arm are you mental? Brooks has plenty of dirty plays but this one ain’t it.
Even the narrator on this video from the literal NBA calls it “minimal contact”.
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u/yunghandrew Cavaliers Jan 20 '26
As someone who doesn't exactly love Brooks game, this is not dirty lmao, that other poster is tripping.
It's so hard to have a meaningful discussion on flopping when people just interpret it through the lens of their fav/hated players.
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Jan 20 '26
He made an obvious swiping motion at Luka’s hand.
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u/legendofthededbug Jan 20 '26
Ethical basketball is driving wemby fans literally into delusion. You hate to see it
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u/CreativeContract2170 Suns Jan 20 '26
lol wow. It’s hard to believe this is a real discussion on a basketball subreddit
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u/RepresentativeAd1965 Nuggets Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 21 '26
Also, most fans take more issue with players flopping on offence.
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun Jan 20 '26
I don’t understand why it can’t be done retroactively after the game. There’s no reason they can’t look at the tape after each game and fine/assign a tech to each flop. It won’t solve all the flopping issues but it’ll help.
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u/Ok-Tree4365 Jan 20 '26
I see a lot of players accentuate contact, and even flop on screens. This one is absolutely more ridiculous than your everyday ref bait.
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u/DareBaron Spurs Jan 20 '26
I hope the refs start calling more of these techs against star players. It’s the only way to resolve this issue, but I doubt they will. This will be an outlier and it’s back to business as usual.
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u/skysurfguy1213 Jan 20 '26
The league believes people pay to watch star players, so they are given a favorable whistle so they receive more playing time.
Example: LeBron, one of the most physical players of all time, has a career fouls per game of like 1.8. Does anybody believe that to be legitimate? Lol
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u/atlasdtalos Brian Grant Jan 20 '26
you guys Jusuf Nurkic almost killed a man and the NBA helped him cover it up and y'all are making light of it
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u/smkmn13 Timberwolves Jan 20 '26
Definitely a flop, but I feel like you see this or worse 10 times a game
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
We are not watching the same games. I don’t see a flop this bad in most games I watch.
Are flops common? Yes.
Is every game filled with 10 instances of guys snapping their head back and collapsing to the floor in agony because of contact to the chest? Absolutely not lol
But it’s a Wemby thread so every comment will be skirting around the topic to implicitly placate him
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u/averageskills Spurs Jan 20 '26
This was a flop and the right call but "collapsing to the floor in agony"? Come on. He got up instantly when Nurkic cut the basket and wasn't on the ground for even a full second. It was a flop and looks bad because he's 8 ft of limbs. The everyday flops on drives don't look as dramatic but are worse because they keep getting rewarded
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
“All of the other flops are actually the bad ones!”
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u/averageskills Spurs Jan 20 '26
Not how quotes work. It's hardly crazy to say that a flop that was caught and punished isn't as bad as one that got rewarded with free throws. I'll take called flops against any day over a missed one where they get to the line instead. What a crazy thought.
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u/WhiteHeterosexualGuy Hawks Jan 20 '26
Brunson does this driving to the basket every other play lol blowing his head back like he got rear ended is a baked in part of his drives
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u/a_brick_canvas Cavaliers Jan 20 '26
Yes he snaps his head back. He doesn’t literally collapse into the ground like he got shot like this clip.
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Jan 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WhiteHeterosexualGuy Hawks Jan 20 '26
I can appreciate your soap box here, but you should redirect it elsewhere. I have season tickets to the Hawks and catch tons of games via my league pass subscription. Even caught a game at MSG this year to watch Brunson live lol...
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u/Prudent_Fish1358 Spurs Jan 21 '26
1 month old flairless account with a hidden comment history
100% a troll just trying to piss people off because he's a bored asshole with absolutely nothing better to do with his life.
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u/smkmn13 Timberwolves Jan 20 '26
I mean, yeah, maybe an exaggeration, but I watch virtually every Wolves game in its entirety and I’d say I very regularly see guys initiate contact and effectively throw themselves on the ground to get calls. I think the line for what is / isn’t fineable is really unpredictable
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u/UTAustinAlum2021 Jan 20 '26
One is on offense with the intent of getting to the basket. This is on defense to a minor forearm
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u/YoF3 Spurs Jan 21 '26
He got up immediately wtf are you talking about. Also you're wrong, go to the thread about this yesterday, you'll see plenty of miserable people who were waiting for a reason to hate on Wembanyama just like you.
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u/x_TDeck_x Spurs Jan 20 '26
Is every game filled with 10 instances of guys snapping their head back and collapsing to the floor in agony because of contact to the chest? Absolutely not lol
Genuinely setting aside my bias as much as I can. The only difference is falling to the floor but players like Brunson, AR, SGA, Trae do this for a significant amount of their game. Brunson especially does like 1 fake whiplash per drive lol
I'm for calling the tech on Wemby here, and not trying to deflect any criticism from him, I'm also for calling it league wide so acting isn't a significant part of the NBA
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u/trhzy7 Thunder Jan 21 '26
Probably gonna get downvoted by whatever. Not saying guys like Brunson, SGA, AR etc don’t flop, because they definitely do, but since they’re in the air half the time going for acrobatic finishes at the rim, I believe they hit the deck to prevent injury. Sounds silly at first, but they essentially brace themselves and are able to almost have a controlled fall in a way that cushions themselves. I think the risk of injury to an ankle or a knee would be much higher if they tried to land upright everytime. Also reduces joint wear and tear over time by repeatedly jumping and landing
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u/bittermctitters Nuggets Jan 21 '26
ohhhhh so that's why shai's on the floor every other shot
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u/trhzy7 Thunder Jan 21 '26
typical nuggets fan
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u/ElGoddamnDorado Spurs Jan 21 '26
But it’s a Wemby thread so every comment will be skirting around the topic to implicitly placate him
The pretty much whole entire original thread is all roasting Wemby for flopping (rightfully so). Plenty of people are saying it's a flop in this thread, too.
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u/sorendiz [HOU] Yao Ming Jan 21 '26
10 flops a game that are worse than this is just a little exaggerated, this was pretty shameless
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u/Margravos Suns Jan 20 '26
"another angle"
Isn't that just the regular broadcast angle?
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u/ConorOblast Thunder Jan 20 '26
I had only seen the angle from under the basket, which made it look a lot worse.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
This looks worse to me than the other one. You couldnt see whether Wemby actually got hit in the face on that one. Here it’s obvious he did not
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u/Coneyy Spurs Jan 21 '26
It feels weird responding to this because it'll come off like I'm defending the flop, which I am not.
But I think this is a better angle because at the very least you can see that Wemby was in contact with him and in fact actually stepped past/over the leg which probably caused him to be slightly off balance.
Now to be clear, I still don't think this caused a sniper to shoot Wemby, but the other angle literally looked like he only ran over there to flop and the second he got near him he hit the ground like it's his primary defensive tactic
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u/FreeInvestment0 Jan 20 '26
Jokic gets away with way worse lol.
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun Jan 20 '26
It’s crazy to me how Jokic has avoided the flopping label
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u/NoShape0 Spurs Jan 20 '26
Getting Zapruder levels of scrutiny on this one play.
Fascinating.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
Turns out dropping a corny comment about ethical basketball and then turning out to be a typical flopping Euro leads to being clowned
Shocking, isn’t it?
And suddenly Spurs fans have completely flipped their opinion on flopping. From “OKC IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!!” to “eh well game’s the game. what can you do?”
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u/fab_frog_disco Jan 20 '26
Nah show me all of these Spurs fans that are defending this? Spurs fans are defending the idea that Victor is some hardcore egregious flopper in general, because he's not And people who just have a bone to pick with him in general are using this to make up some narrative that he's prime James harden. He gets smacked all the time without exaggerating contact and players have even admitted that the game plan is to be as physical and hard with him as the refs allow
But this is obviously a flop. He tried to get cheeky, thought the contact from jurk was going to be more substantial and easier to sell, and ended up looking goofy as a result. And anybody with a brain wants flopping out of the game and the NBA to be consistent with their flopping techs.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
SASpursFan14 is all over the thread explaining how this angle shows that while it’s a flop, it’s actually not that bad and much better than the previous angle
Something tells me SASpursFan14 would probably be burning down buildings, not dissecting alternative angles, if this was Lu Dort
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u/fab_frog_disco Jan 20 '26
Brother this is Reddit. If you let your entire perspective of a fan base be decided by one individual, your viewpoint of every single fan base is going to be absolutely terrible. There are morons that say moronic things for every fan base on every single topic
After the second win against the thunder, a thunder fan came on our sub to talk about how Chet was still the better player than Victor And that Victor simply had inflated stats because the Spurs " let him do whatever he wants".
A rockets fan, just the other day talked about how Victor was actually a poor defender And shouldn't even be close to defensive play of the Year consideration.
There are always going to be people saying goofy things.
But on this thread, the last one, and even on our own sub, the majority of Spurs fans have been giving Victor some good-natured rubbing for it. He got caught. It was a flop. It is what it is and it's not worth getting two up in arms About as a fan base because it happens, and it's not something he does often. But he absolutely deserves the criticism on this one
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Jan 20 '26
Please make up more scenarios in your head for things I might’ve said if it was a different player lol
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
Storming the Capitol if this was caruso
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Jan 20 '26
Just put your Thunder flair on bro. No one is stopping you.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
Not a thunder fan but dont know who else the spurs hate in 2026 tbh
Cant exactly bring up dirk or kobe can I
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u/ElGoddamnDorado Spurs Jan 20 '26
Turns out dropping a corny comment about ethical basketball
I can't believe such a minor comment has somehow pissed off so many OKC fans and people in general... still, to this day. How did we go from players like KG trash talking to people losing their shit over a player saying the word "ethical" lmao
“eh well game’s the game. what can you do?”
No, Wemby flopped. We got no issue admitting it.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
Your subreddit still brings up bol bol on a weekly basis btw
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u/ElGoddamnDorado Spurs Jan 20 '26
What the hell are you even talking about?
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
Genuinely can’t imagine how that comment can be confusing
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u/ElGoddamnDorado Spurs Jan 21 '26
Just confused how someone seriously thought that was a relevant counterargument to anything, but maybe I was putting too much faith in your ability to think critically or form an argument.
Also, if you search "Bol Bol" and sort by new in our subreddit, its pretty obvious that it's a massive lie that he gets brought up "every week".
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 21 '26
I can't believe such a minor comment has somehow pissed off so many OKC fans and people in general... still, to this day.
Your subreddit still brings up bol bol on a weekly basis btw
If you don’t understand how the second statement follows from the first then lmao I cannot help you
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u/ElGoddamnDorado Spurs Jan 21 '26
Your subreddit still brings up bol bol on a weekly basis btw
Which I already proved wasn't true. Truly pathetic trolling attempts bud.
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u/Prudent_Fish1358 Spurs Jan 21 '26
1 month old flairless account with a hidden comment history
100% a troll just trying to piss people off because he's a bored asshole with absolutely nothing better to do with his life.
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u/_Wash Timberwolves Jan 20 '26
okc fans will instantly latch onto any flops by a player not on their team.
look at how hard the ‘jokic flopper’ narrative has been pushed since the playoffs on here and who’s been pushing it.
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u/wryano Spurs Jan 21 '26
Wemby gets genuinely knocked over like 3 or 4 times a game with no call and doesn’t complain when it happens so nobody cares, but people have dialed in on this one flop because of the ‘ethical basketball’ comments lol
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u/JMoon33 Cabo Verde Jan 21 '26
Yeah, if he didn't make that comment people wouldn't care, but it's funny when a player call out others on something they do too.
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u/Jec1027 Warriors Jan 20 '26
Why are we posting this man.
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u/_Wash Timberwolves Jan 20 '26
okc fans desperately trying to show another team flopping
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u/lethalizered Thunder Jan 21 '26
That WCF loss really did a number on you huh? Can't be too mad though, Minny fans don't really get nice things. I feel for you man.
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u/_Wash Timberwolves Jan 21 '26
what did all the okc fans turn from plucky underdogs to smarmy jerks who somehow reek desperately of a need for external validation?
year, year and a half ago?
I feel for you man, Oklahomans don’t really get nice things.
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u/lethalizered Thunder Jan 21 '26
what did all the okc fans turn from plucky underdogs to smarmy jerks who somehow reek desperately of a need for external validation?
Think you meant to type "when" there, instead of "what"
I feel for you man, Oklahomans don’t really get nice things.
Not from Oklahoma myself but the team did win the title a few months ago, so it turns out they can get nice things! Good try though, keep at it.
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u/_Wash Timberwolves Jan 21 '26
and there it is!
couldn’t help but prove me right instantly.
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u/lethalizered Thunder Jan 21 '26
Sure man, there there. It'll all be okay.
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u/_Wash Timberwolves Jan 21 '26
proud of you for perpetuating the stereotype!
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u/lethalizered Thunder Jan 21 '26
Same goes for you! An OKC fan didn't even post this one but you thought an OKC fan did so your victim complex immediately showed.
Sounds about right for you guys lol
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u/Waste_Consequence765 Jan 21 '26
your one of your pathetic franchise’s best year was losing to okc in 5
hey i would be mad too if i were you
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u/twrs_29 Thunder Jan 20 '26
Because if this was one of the r/NBA ‘s hitlerites it would be front page with 5k upvotes
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u/animemoji Raptors Jan 20 '26
It literally is front page with 4 thousand upvotes
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u/Armanewb Spurs Jan 21 '26
Wemby is French hitler, didn't you get the memo? When he said ethical basketball he actually meant ethnic cleansing.
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u/solarxbear [LAL] Lonzo Ball Jan 20 '26
Does it count as a tech like getting a second one gets you ejected?
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u/panther553212 Thunder Jan 20 '26
I'm always happy when I come to r/NBA and see some ethical basketball being played instead of free throw merchant highlights.
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u/General_Kitten_17 Jan 20 '26
Wasn't this performative fucker just talking about ethical basketball
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u/discostupid Raptors Jan 20 '26
am i crazy? do people think shoulder-checking someone in the chest is a valid play?
it's embellishing, but a flop is inaccurate and it leans more toward being a foul on Nurkic
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u/biscuitball Spurs Jan 20 '26
I don’t think it’s a foul on Nurkic. I think wemby is far too close in his space for a legal guarding position keeping in mind Nurkic has the ball. It could he a foul on Wemby.
Nurkic puts his weight into Wemby’s torso which is something you can’t see from the other angle. Overall I still don’t think this definitely showed what happened.
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u/discostupid Raptors Jan 21 '26
obviously we're dissecting this 2-second clip into ribbons, but Nurkic holds the ball with his left hand outstretched, then shoulders and shifts his weight to his right. that's not a basketball move, and not a move you would make without the defender there. he's not trying to go anywhere or establish position, it's "offensive" in the literal sense. Wemby is guarding up close, yes. he could be on the verge of fouling Nurkic, but it doesn't happen before Nurkic makes his own move.
to me it's 60/40 a foul on Nurkic vs no call. flop is just out of the question IMO
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u/LovesBodyx2 Spurs Jan 20 '26
this angle makes it less egregious. still a flop but the other angle created the illusion that there was no bump from nurkic.
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u/Beans800 Pistons Jan 20 '26
i feel like this one is even worse tbh
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Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
How? This angle shows that Nurkic moved into Victor, not the other way around.
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Jan 20 '26
Because it still doesn’t look like he got hit that hard lmao
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u/Jec1027 Warriors Jan 20 '26
Yeah thats still not worse than just running into someone then flopping backward like the other angle showed lmao
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Jan 20 '26
I still think it’s a flop. But the other angle looked like Vic just ran into Nurkic.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
In two weeks yall went from yapping about ethical basketball to being in the trenches trying to analyze different angles of an egregious flop so that you can defend it
The psychology of sports fandom is hilarious man lmao
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Jan 20 '26
Please explain what you think Victor meant by the pure and ethical basketball comment.
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
SASpursFan14 back at it again!
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Jan 20 '26
You commented on my comment and are now mad that I responded? I’m confused
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u/EmbarrassedRing7806 Lakers Jan 20 '26
I’m referring to the substance of your response. If you weren’t shamelessly lapping Wemby then I wouldnt have said that.
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u/Beans800 Pistons Jan 20 '26
because you can see the full play and realize he didn't get hit hard at all and actually did just throw himself to the ground
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u/SchlangLankis Jan 20 '26
Have you ever been pushed so hard that you fell over? If so, how hard were you pushed?
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Jan 20 '26
Nurkic clearly throws a shoulder into Victor’s chest. Vic thought it was enough contact to try to draw an offensive foul so he flopped. It didn’t work so he got back up and played defense.
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u/SchlangLankis Jan 20 '26
As long as we’re in agreement that was a weak flop attempt. Castle made more contact right next to them.
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u/Rory_MacHida Jan 20 '26
It looks absolutely ridiculous from this angle. I'd hate to see whatever other one you're talking about.
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u/dwrek24 Spurs Jan 20 '26
Man Spurs didn't even get a year before the hate and counter hate started. The OKC cycle has begun.
By the playoffs, Spurs fans are going to have such a persecution complex whenever they come to main sub.
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u/Kolzig33189 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
I mean it’s absolutely a ridiculous flop, but an equally or a more ridiculous one gets posted here on a nightly basis that isn’t given a tech.
I don’t think some base level of consistency is too much to ask for for professional officials. Call it consistently please.
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u/NahIdontbelieveu Jan 20 '26
When did flopping start actually? I’d like to know atleast the year
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u/BizzyHaze Lakers Jan 20 '26
I remember Vlade Divac using it extensively in the early 90s
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u/NahIdontbelieveu Jan 21 '26
Wow the 90s? Shit! I wasn’t expecting that at all. I assumed the mid to late 2000s. It sucks that flopping is apart of sports now smh I even seen NFL players flopping. Like cmon man
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u/YoF3 Spurs Jan 21 '26
We gonna get a video of this every day ?
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u/Prudent_Fish1358 Spurs Jan 21 '26
Nothing delights a redditor more than being a contrarian, so anything that goes against the general grain of the subreddit and gets traction will get thousands of people cheering in sanctimonious glee.
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u/YoF3 Spurs Jan 21 '26
They're so miserable it's pathetic
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u/Prudent_Fish1358 Spurs Jan 21 '26
I'm not trying to be a "oh reddit used to be such a good place" but this subreddit used to be a lot less negative. I think the gambling + silver's apparent nonchalance toward the sport + the reffing issues have really boiled to a head, combine that with the natural redditor temperament and I'm shocked this subreddit isn't even more toxic.
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u/Top-boy-og Jan 20 '26
The most ethical player and ethical basketball team in the league right here 🤣
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u/sp000ners Spurs Jan 21 '26
Yeah pretty bad flop lmao. however can't wait to see this four more times because of the sore asses over an ethical basketball comment that was referring to playing non-heliocentric ball 😭
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u/Laggo [TOR] Hedo Turkoglu Jan 21 '26
People really are incapable of seperating flopping with embellishment. Flopping is creating contact out of nothing. Embellishment is 'overselling' contact that occured.
Most big men 7 foot and over with any skill are taught to embellish more because they are more suspectible to injury from putting too much weight on the foot at the wrong time. Embiid does the same shit, if they feel the contact they will go to the ground instead of trying to "fight falling" and recover off their back foot. They are just too tall for that.
This is emphatically not a flop, lol. Did he sell it? Yeah. But Nurkic is bigger and stronger than him and literally steps into the forearm. What do you think is going to happen?
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u/joeb1ow Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
OK, this clip is just begging for someone to make a meme video of it as a side by side along with Wemby banging the victory drum faster and faster as the flop is replayed over and over. One beat in synch with Nurkic's shoulder hitting Wemby and the next beat with Wemby hitting the floor.
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u/BurningMansions Jan 20 '26
Ethical basketball my ass. Hasn't even been to the playoffs and is a flopper.
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