For nearly three and a half years now, the J.R Smith-Raja Bell double flop has been, in my mind, the greatest show of artistry and shoddy acting on an NBA court. The two were perfectly in unison as they fell to the floor, arms flailing, as Deron Williams casually glanced over in time to see the two hit the court.
There have been other good flops, but none have come close to whatever happened in that Feb. 2011 game. How did they both end up flying like that? Did they plan it? Did they secretly discuss it on the previous play — “OK, on three we flop. Got it?” And what was Williams thinking?
Itap a thing a beauty, and I say this knowing the King of Flopping, Manu Ginobili, has over the years . (And, yes, I truly believe itap an art.) His work has yet to overtake Smith’s and Bell’s masterpiece though.
However, one play Monday in an otherwise dull (at best) game between the Nuggets and Kings made me question my allegiance to the Smith-Bell double-flop. At a time when the league is supposedly cracking down on flopping, Kenneth Faried, Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins engaged in the rare triple-flop, all three collapsing to the floor simultaneously for no apparent reason. Bizarre. Weird. Awesome.
After watching it a good 10 or so times (I lead a very meaningful life), I’ve decided that, rare as it may be, itap not impressive enough to overtake the Smith-Bell act. The dramatics didn’t do it for me. The fall wasn’t hard enough. Their facial expressions weren’t of complete bafflement. I wasn’t sold.
But it was pretty good and has earned a spot among my top five all-time flops. Behold:
The flop in Game 1 of 2012 Eastern Conference first-round series between the Heat and Knicks was summed up nicely by Jeff Van Gundy: “Oh come on! What kind of league are we becoming if that’s a flagrant foul?!”
Game 3 of the 2011 Western Conference finals
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