Stern to issue fines for flopping
David Stern is actually more fed up with flopping than Rasheed Wallace. The NBA commissioner ended a debate within the league’s competition committee on how to curb the alarming number of flops in the game when he decided he would handle the culprits personally.
Teams were told Thursday about Stern’s new policy: heavy fines for flopping, effective next season. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Stern dismissed other suggestions, such as giving referees the power to assess technical fouls for flopping or incorporating a point system in the same manner as flagrant fouls.
It has not yet been determined what the fine will be or if there will be additional penalties for repeat offenders.
Wallace on Thursday was fined $25,000 by the league for his use of profanity and for criticizing the officiating in a postgame rant about some questionable calls that went in favor of the Celtics in Detroit’s Game 5 loss in Boston on Wednesday.
“You saw them calls. The cats are flopping all over the floor,” said Wallace, who then spiced up his rant with some expletives.
Saunders not worried
Flip Saunders doesn’t sound like a coach worried about his future.
The Boston Celtics won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, pushing the Detroit Pistons to the brink of elimination and a possible shake up.
Saunders has already outlasted his predecessors, Larry Brown and Rick Carlisle, both of whom lasted just two years.
But if Detroit loses in the conference finals for a third straight season, there’s a chance Saunders won’t be back for a fourth.
Saunders shrugged off the pressure on him going into a win-or-go-home matchup tonight at home, saying he’s excited about the opportunity.
“I really believe if we get Game 6, that we’re going to have a good opportunity in Game 7,” Saunders said.
Mayo ‘overwhelmed’
O.J. Mayo was tying up loose ends at college and preparing to take his mom out for a Mother’s Day dinner when he heard the news.
A former associate of his, Louis Johnson, was on ESPN earlier this month saying Mayo was funneled money by a sports promoter from a professional agent, during and after his high-profile prep basketball career.
“I was overwhelmed,” Mayo told a crowd of reporters in Orlando, where he was to be weighed and measured as part of the NBA’s pre-draft camp. “I haven’t talked to (Johnson) for a long time – maybe since January.
Bulls talk to Collins
To shape their future, the Chicago Bulls could turn to the past.
Doug Collins, who guided the Bulls and a young Michael Jordan from 1986-89 but couldn’t get them past Detroit in the playoffs, has talked with the team about returning as coach.
“I have spoken with Bulls management recently about their head coaching vacancy and will resume conversations after the conclusion of my work for TNT in the Western Conference finals,” Collins said in a statement from Los Angeles.
‘A’ in diversity
The NBA had seven black top executives among its 30 teams during the 2007-08 season, the highest percentage of minority presidents and CEOs in men’s professional sports history.
The 23 percent of black executives, plus high ratios of women and black vice presidents, helped the NBA receive the first overall “A” among men’s sports teams, according to the report issued by Richard Lapchick.