Basketball On The Internet.

IT was the talk of social media and reinforced all day that the one thing the new NBL failed to clean up - though it promised it would - was the notorious practice of "flopping".

No, it doesn't help that the world's greatest current player LeBron James finds it necessary to stoop to it, which means a zillion kids in the next generation already are practising the new art form.

And it doesn't help that our worstwhile, sorry, "erstwhile" TV analyst Steve Carfino erroneously continues to insist: "You have to flop to get the call."

Yeah. Bull$#!+ Stefano.

Frankly, my memory is being tested but I cannot recall Carfino doing it as a player and while slightly emphasising contact is one thing, giant men falling as though they have been shot with an elephant rifle is just embarrassing.

lt's embarrassing for them to do it, it's embarrassing for the club and it is embarrassing for the league, that is unless we're talking the A-League.

There, rolling around and clutching a shin or throwing yourself on the park for a tumble-turn, somersault and perfect on-the-back breathless landing is almost an essential part of soccer's game-day regime.

On a basketball court, it is pathetic. And what's even more embarrassing is referees falling for it. Still. Even our best ones.

The sad truth is, there is now NO team in the NBL which doesn't have a flopper or two. {If you cannot name yours, ask any fan of a rival team to name your team's flopper/floppers and brace for the shock to your system.}

Coaches will tell you they hate it too but none are unhappy when they get the benefit of a flop-induced call. Otherwise they'd stamp it out in their own teams.

There was just way too much of it in today's showcase game for the NBL.

Had the distinct pleasure of briefly catching up with Wildcats stalwart and Hall of Famer Andrew Vlahov post-Game 3 - was a little busy workwise to spend as much time as I'd have liked - but it struck me talking with this beast of his era, he never would have flopped.

This was the guy who redefined manliness in the NBL.

This is the guy who stood chest-to-chest with Karl Malone 18 years ago and it was the Mailman who stepped back.

This is the type of guy who Sylvester Stallone's character in Rocky Balboa talks about in his memorable speech from the movie of the same name when he says: "It ain't about how hard you're hit.

"It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward - how much you can take and keep moving forward.

"That's how winning is done."

Well. It's how winning WAS done.

Now it's about swan-diving, faking, cheating, acting and I am very much among those people who despise it.

It is symptomatic of a society which is no longer about honesty but about how much you can get away with and still collect the prize. It sickens, offends and saddens me.

And the NBL Grand Final Game 3 was full of it and never was it penalised. In fact, it was rewarded. Constantly.

It means at the end of the day, for all the gains Messrs Cooper, Hunt and Mildenhall made for the league this season in terms of style-of-play - and it was substantial - it still finished with a massive fail where flopping is concerned.

Back at this website on January 3, I gave my view on what I felt should be done. I stand by it and reprint it below in case you want a peek and didn't want to go fishing back to find it.

It is a blight on our sport and while last year's deciding game in the Grand Final series was a wrestle-fest, this year the blot on such a wonderful finish to the year was the flopfest.

If you don't treat the disease when it first appears, at some point expect a plague.

Definitely, eradicating this plague should be high on the NBL's off-season "to-do" list.

Flip the Floppers (B.O.T.I. - January 3)

NOBODY admires a flopper. Whether it is a Damon Lowery or a Lebron James, that decision to flop, exaggerate contact and con a foul call is rightly regarded as the very essence of cheating but also is just not very manly.

The genuine greats – Magic, Larry, Oscar Robertson, Kareem, Wilt, Bill Russell - or our home-grown greats such as Werner, Coley, Richo, Lindsay, Bill Palmer ... they never flopped.

It was beneath them, the flop being the fallback of the fallen, the domain of the defeated.

When the NBA legislated to cut it out, a positive step was taken for every player who holds his ground and, dare I suggest it, plays like a man.

And this season, when the NBL too decided it was time to penalise the over-actors, many here also were thrilled.

But despite the occasional warning, few, if any, have been punished for flopping.

Sure, it can be a tough call when there is genuine hard contact. Less so when a player with the ball pivots and some 120kg big-man goes flying 20 metres on his butt.

So the flopping continues, with at least a couple in virtually every game.

Here’s the solution. Don’t worry about it ON THE NIGHT.

BUT! Referees lawman Marshall Mal Cooper and/or his deputies Wild Bill Mildenhall and Renegade Ray Hunt watch and assess the performance of the officials in every game.

They watch EVERY game, either live or on video.

So, when they see a blatant flop, they should send the video evidence to the NBL tribunal and the culprit suspended for one game.

No ifs, buts or maybes.

You flopped? You’re flipped. One game.

Go grow a pair of onions during your week’s break.

No court of appeal, no chance for the squeal. You flopped? You don’t get a chance to flap.

Imagine this during the TV call. “Wow, that looked like a flop from Sam Griddon, didn’t you think Steve? Think the Tribunal might be having a look at that one during the week.”

Yeah, trial by video may not be the most desirable option. But is flagrant flopping a better one?

Trust me. The first player nailed under the new rule would more than likely be the last as well, the league’s serial floppers immediately on notice knowing every game is being filmed in these oh-so-modern high-tech days.

Worth a thought?