Late in the first quarter of last night’s Miami Heat-Dallas Mavericks game, LeBron James was working his way into the paint against DeShaun Stephenson and Brendan Haywood. All of a sudden he fell back as if he were pushed.

He flopped.

A foul was called against Haywood, a tech was called against Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who objected to the call, and LeBron went to the line.

I don’t remember if LeBron hit his free throws. I was too busy arguing at the T.V. against commentator Jeff Van Gundy.

Van Gundy was completely disgusted by the flop and said, as he says every time a guy flops, that it is destroying the game.

I don’t see it that way.

In eighth grade my coach taught our team how to take charges. He said we were to plant our feet, fall back in an exaggerated manner, let out a loud grunt and slap the floor with the palms of our hands to further sell the hit.

And we practiced this by plowing into each other and putting dents in the hardwood.

By definition, wasn’t that flopping?

Yes. And I didn’t care then, I didn’t care in high school when I made it my goal to get a charge every game, and I don’t care now.

It’s good basketball.

And it’s even better basketball if you get the call when there was never any contact to begin with, as LeBron did.

Actually LeBron has become very good at this. Remember the fake eye poke against Derrick Rose.

I understand how Van Gundy feels, though. It does make it hard to trust a player if he’s always crying wolf. And flopping can potentially turn NBA players into wimps, falling all over the place every time they want free throws.

But first of all, a player who goes to the hole as much as James does gets fouled just about every time he touches the ball, so there’s got to be a call in there somewhere.

And second, players don’t have whistles!

If the ref is going to call something that he didn’t even see, then players should take advantage of it.

It’s not punk basketball. It’s smart basketball. Or are NBA players not allowed to be smart considering the demographics (this part is not directed at Van Gundy—he and Mark Jackson are huge advocates for NBA players).

And this series shows that every little bit helps.

If someone suggests getting rid of flopping, I would suggest writing a stern letter to David. Did you get the goofy pun?

The commissioner has made it clear that he wants the NBA to be softer and less volatile than in the past. I don’t know, something about a brawl in Detroit.

Thus we have officials who call pitty-pat fouls, even the one’s they don’t see.

If Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird -- I named them all because they are my top five of all time in that order -- were playing in this over sensitive league, they’d be flopping too.

Great players take whatever they can get. So to borrow a phrase from the 90’s, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Man, has that always been corny?

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Michael Gentry is a regular contributor to Qcitymetro.com. He writes most frequently about Charlotte's faith community, but he's also an avid sports fan.

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