July 12 (UPI) — The NBA’s board of governors approved two rule changes for the 2023-24 season, including a second coach’s challenge and a flopping penalty, the league announced.
The board of governors approved the rule changes Tuesday at its annual meeting in Las Vegas. The NBA’s competition committee, composed of players, team owners, union representatives, coaches, executives and referees, recommended the changes.
Under the terms of the new flopping rule, when officials call the infraction — or a “physical act that reasonably appears to be intended to cause officials to call a foul on another player” — the offending player will be charged with a “non-unsportsmanlike technical foul.”
The opposing team will receive one free throw attempt, which can be attempted by any player who was in the game at the time the foul was called. Players will not be ejected from a game because of flopping violations.
Referees will not need to stop live play to call flopping violations. Officials will be permitted to call both a foul and flopping penalty on the same play. Flopping violations will not be directly reviewable by a coach’s challenge, but referees can call the penalty after a replay review that was triggered by a challenge or referee-called replay review because of a called foul.
The league also adjusted the postgame fine system for flops, starting at $2,000 and increasing for repeat offenders of the violation. The in-game flopping penalty will take effect on a trial basis in 2023-24.
Under the terms of the coach’s challenge rule modification, coaches now will be awarded a second challenge if the first is successful. The rule will remain the same that teams will get to keep their timeout if their first challenge is successful and lose it if it fails.
Teams also must use a timeout to trigger a second challenge, if the first is successful. The league said timeout will be lost regardless of the second challenge’s outcome due to “game length and flow of game” reasons.
NBA 2K24 Summer League play will continue through Monday in Las Vegas. Training camps will open in late September. The regular season will start Oct. 18.
