Yesterday, while watching game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals I witnessed a flop in the 4th quarter by Boston Celtics player Ray Allen. Watching him flop (by flop I am referring to acting as if a player was fouled when in fact the player wasn’t in an attempt to convince the refs that he was fouled by a nearby player) made me consider if we should look at such acts as cheating. So, in this brief post, I’ll consider the concept of cheating and look at the case of flopping to see if it should be considered a form of cheating in sports and whether we should blame the flopper for cheating when it occurs.
Cheating usually refers to an immoral way of achieving a goal. It is generally used for the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. Some examples of cheating in the context of sports can be; the use of certain equipment that has been banned (a corked bat in baseball), the use of banned substances (steroids to gain an advantage), and adding a point to the scoreboard when it hasn’t been properly earned (obvious cheating).
In all cases of cheating, deception is at play. In the academic realm cheating is usually outlined by putting work forth as if it was your own. For instance, using a cheat sheet in order to give answers that were meant to be memorized (fill in other ways one can cheat with your favorite method here ______). It seems that the deception that occurs is part of the cheating process in general, but is deception by itself a form of cheating itself? I can be but it need not be.
I think it’s context sensitive – to a degree. Certain games (poker comes to mind), and certain aspects of many professional sports require deception in order to play and play well. For instance, a change-up or a curve ball in baseball, a fake pass or a sneaky blitz package in football. Deception is at play in these sorts of cases but in a very different way than it is when it’s used in cheating. In the case of flopping, you are indirectly accusing the opposite team of committing an infraction that they did not commit. Admittedly, they’ll be some fringe cases where the actor did in fact think he was fouled and exaggerated his reaction to it by flopping, this is a tricky case.
All things considered, I do think that flopping is a form of cheating in basketball. You’re attempting to gain an advantage by deceiving the referees into thinking you were fouled. This seems like cheating to me. This leads me to another question; should we blame the player flopping for his actions? Are we justified in being mad and directing our reactive attitudes toward a player who flops to gain an advantage for his team? I think we are justified in blaming him for cheating and I think the governing body of the NBA should consider a course of action in order to deal with this problem. It affects the refs ability to properly call a game and it often affects the outcome of the game, which, seems unfair. The game should be determined by the team that played the game the best, not by the team that played sub-par but their acting was superb. I’d be curious to read any thoughts you might have on the matter.
A Philosopher's Take 
Rapadoo Observateur
June 6, 2012
The officiating has been a disaster, though it is playoff basketball! nice post,
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Justin Caouette
June 6, 2012
Thanks. And, I agree, the officiating has been woeful thus far!
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Rapadoo Observateur
June 6, 2012
so is this the end of the road for the Heat?
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Justin Caouette
June 6, 2012
As a Boston native I’d like to think so 🙂
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Rapadoo Observateur
June 6, 2012
well said! 🙂
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kccethics
June 6, 2012
Great post, really interesting. Do you think the intentions of the deceiver are important here?
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Justin Caouette
June 6, 2012
Thanks. I think the intentions of the deceiver are quite important (as a virtue ethicist this shouldn’t come as a surprise 🙂 )
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Melissa R. Barbosa
June 6, 2012
I absolutely agree that flopping is a form of cheating. If they are faking the seriousness of a foul or lack there of, they are not only being untruthful but they are being manipulative to acquire a gain which goes hand in hand with your definition of cheating (stated above). If the refs did a better job at observing the game, flopping wouldn’t even happen! Players do it because they know they can get away with it, there is a huge possibility that the refs are not watching close enough, and refs may very well rely on a misguiding flop to make a call.. Great post!
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Dave blaze
June 6, 2012
All things considered, is it cheating yes to an extent but in ordef to fix the problem there needs to be a rule were the player is penalized for this act. For example in football if the def hollers out a fake cadences to decieve the offence they are penalized. Or in baseball there are often balks called for the pitcher trying to decieve there opponents on the base paths. With flopping they are decieving the refs, which then is left up to the refs to determine if it is a flop or an actual foul that may present a whole new problem in itself. With flops being called, what if refs got this wrong instead calling fouls they made a mistake and called a flop on a player who is actually fouled?
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George Kassimis
June 6, 2012
Whether or not it is cheating, I’m not sure. Saying it’s “immoral” in that definition gives me trepidation (what else would you expect from me?).
My problem with flopping (why I get mad at it) has little to do with cheating anyway. It’s annoying! It’s so lame, it stops play, and it seems unnecessary to do anyway! It’s purely an enjoyment thing for me. And for something like basketball, if it’s not enjoyable, that’d be a damning thing.
To put on the sportswriter’s hat, basketball needs a dramatic shift. At all levels, officiating is bad, coaching is bad, and all the young players want to do is showcase their athletic abilities (with encouragement from officials, coaches, school administrators, and commissioners). I love basketball, but it’s overrun by people who think it’s a circus act. While the Globetrotters and games at Rucker Park are enjoyable in that sense, there needs to be a way to enjoy the game in a more grounded craft like manner. It’s not there. It used to be, but it’s not there anymore.
Nobody used to flop. Not many good coaches out there to teach the kids that.
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Steve Capone
June 6, 2012
I tend to think that, as you point out, deception is a legitimate approach to winning many different kinds of games.
Whether it happens ‘on the surface,’ as in flopping in basketball or keeping a straight face in poker – or more subtly – as happens when a skilled chess player convinces (without explicitly telling) another player that she is using a well-known strategy, while simultaneously advancing a different strategy in order to win the game… deception is a key element of many games.
When it becomes immoral seems to be determined by fiat – if there’s a rule violation, then the deception isn’t permissible. Most sports have been professionalized to the extent at which anything we consider to be illegitimate deception has been banned or explicitly penalized – “diving” in ice hockey or taping the opponent’s practice sessions in football.
I tend to think that, so long as a rule isn’t violated, whatever form of deception a team or player chooses to utilize in order to trick the other team or player(s) into making a mistake is a legitimate form of deception.
I don’t actually know many of the technical rules of basketball – it seems to me that, if flopping is an illegal action on the court, then it’s an illegitimate form of deception. If it’s not, then it’s legitimate.
I suppose I take the legal positivist view about deception in games. If the rules permit the behavior, it’s legitimate; if the rules do not permit the behavior, it’s not.
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Justin Caouette
June 6, 2012
Thanks for all the comments.
@kcethics – Yes the intention most definitely matters for me.
@Dave – I think a rule is in order as well but the problems you raise with regards to how we would know if it was a flop or not are difficult. Maybe we could fine players after the game once officials have time to look at the details of the play unless it was an obvious flop. This would at least minimize the amount of flops we see and punish those that are doing it (Ron Artest comes to mind as of late as does Dennis Rodman in the 90’s who are both legendary floppers).
@George – (Of course it gives you trepidation, I expect nothing less) But, why the reluctance to say that cheating is immoral? It might not be as bad as murder but I think in most instances cheating is clearly an immoral action. Maybe I’m dealing with a generic definition of morality but I see it as pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong. Cheating should fall into this realm of judgement. Certainly cheating on your spouse is immoral if you’re in a monogamous relationship, right? How about cheating on an exam? How about cheating on an exam if the prof never explicitly said you shouldn’t cheat? The concept of cheating is a loaded concept for sure, but I’m not worried about bringing in the concept of morality when thinking about it.
@Steve – flopping does not result in a penalty nor does it break any rule in basketball at the moment. But it seems as though it should be a penalty.
I guess I’m a little more skeptical on how much deception we should allow before we lose the integrity of the game. Deception against an opponent, unless the rules clearly state that you cannot engage in certain forms of it (Dave’s example of the balk in baseball is an example), seems ok. However, deception of those in charge of the game, judges and officials, seems to be acting against an unspoken rule. That you shouldn’t deceive those that are in charge of judging a play that has a bearing on the outcome of the competition or it isn’t fair.These actions do not seem legitimate to me. It seems like a form of cheating. Fairness is an unspoken rule in competitive sports (and in lots of instances outside of sport) and most actions that aim at producing an unfair result should be seen as cheating.
Consider Bill Belichick (or his staff) stealing signals for the Patriots to gain an advantage. There were no set rules against it but it’s an obvious form of cheating which is why they were punished. And, even if it wasn’t a rule it still seems to be a form of cheating. The concept of cheating is a difficult one but I do think one can be said to be cheating without officially breaking a written rule.
Steve, consider the rules in the classroom. There is probably no rule against leaving a test in the event of a medical emergency.But let’s say a student lied about said medical emergency in order to look up some answers and gain more time to study the material.He didn’t break a rule per say (let’s assume there is no rule against leaving for a medical emergency or no clear rule about lying about said emergencies – this would be quite the syllabus in order to accommodate every instance that one could cheat).
It seems like the student’s deception is a form of cheating regardless of the written rules unless the student has come from a culture where cheating is just what they do as a right of passage or something. Those cases aside, it seems that the student is cheating.
Admittedly, you’ve only taken the logical positivist route with regards to “games” and this case is not a game, strictly speaking. However, what we might find wrong in both cases seems quite analogous. Further, it seems that because these players are on center stage as the ambassadors of the game both to our youth and to countries around the world, then it seems that we should protect the integrity of the game by officially moving flopping from an unsaid rule that we ought to follow to a rule that is punishable with fines or something along those lines.
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John Camacho
June 6, 2012
@Steve and @Justin
Seems clear that Justin affirms in a normative fashion that flopping is a form of cheating. However, even if Justin is correct and we hold the positivist thesis that any violation of a rule is cheating, a further normative question presents itself, namely, “How much cheating SHOULD be allowed?”
For example, many violations of NBA rules are commonplace; in fact, they are agreed upon, including traveling, make-up calls, star calls, early touch fouls, late-game fouls and offensive/defensive three seconds. Now, if you want the game to stop all these forms of cheating, more refs are required to pay closer attention to players feet and hands. Perhaps, even more instant replay than only at the end of the game. Further, one should be prepared to watch a game in which refs are likely to influence the style of play more than ever. While these are only future possibilities, there may be good reasons for thinking that implementing a rule against flopping will become an impotent endeavor.
It is interesting to consider the attempt to link flopping to cheating. Flopping deceives (gives a false presentation to) the referee into believing the defender was not really hit as hard as he made it look. We do not want a game that gives a false impression to the referee, thus, it is cheating. However, even if we successfully link flopping to cheating, we should be equally transparent about why we accept traveling (in non-egregious cases) and why flopping should now be outlawed. Simply, we want a game that does not support faking being hit, but a game that allows that extra step on a visceral dunk is very palatable.
For any metaethicists, out there, I wonder where you can see my leanings? : )
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Justin Caouette
June 7, 2012
Thanks for the post, John.
WIth regards to traveling; it’s allowed in non-egregious situations because the result of the play would usually end up exactly the same regardless of the extra step (maybe). Or, maybe we’re ok with it because we allow it on both ends of the floor?
With regards to your metaethical leanings… I’ll take a stab at it (but, I’m not sure I have enough to work with here).
‘Constructivist’? If not, my second guess would be a ‘Particularist’? I could see Dancy giving a similar response… maybe…
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The Cloud Chronicler
June 7, 2012
We don’t live in a perfect world. History has thought us one thing. If we cheat and get away with it, we usually gain a huge unfair advantage. Some people cheated to form entire civilizations. Jacob cheated Esau of his birthright and became the father of israel. God willing or no, it’s still cheating. And in a moral context (in your case a rule context) it is wrong.
So was maradona’s hand of god goal.
But as bankers say: high risk high returns.
So if you cheat and get away with it, you might walk away with a grin. But if you don’t get away with it, you will get a red card and you are off the game. Historically some people cheated and got the death penalty.
Its just like selling drugs. It’s risky, but where there is a reward, there is a demand, and you will be damn well certain there is a supply.
On another note, all rules are man made. And some rules (I include laws) advocated slavery, discrimination, even genocide. I believe those people are right to break man made rules in their pursuit of happiness and liberty.
But for basketball, it’s good to show real sportsmanship.
~ E
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George Kassimis
June 8, 2012
Justin,
I’m reluctant to call it a moral issue because I don’t think the motivation of rules in sports are moral. For something like sports or exams, if there aren’t strict and specific rules, then there’s a risk of a pragmatic sustainability. What would be the point of giving an exam if anyone can just cheat on it? Wouldn’t sports be boring if the stupid little things they do to cheat were allowed? Being a baserunner in baseball, for example, would be futile if there was no such thing as balk. Their respective purposes sort of disintegrate should cheating be allowed. And that’s a sufficient motivation to put rules in. So, making it a moral issue seems pretty redundant. No?
I mean, the thing is it can feel immoral because there’s a common trait with cheating and criminal things, and that is deception. Is that really enough, though? There’s nothing wrong with me sandpapering one of my baseballs that I usually have within reach outside, because I’m not gonna pitch it in a game. Does the context of being in competition, then, make it morally wrong? If it does, then there’s some wizardry at work. Maybe it’s a social contract-type thing, but that’s weird because we have little choice but to participate in the world at large. Whereas we don’t HAVE to participate in sports. There’s a certain “lie in the bed you made” quality to that. While it is a ridiculous notion, it’s only brought up by saying “cheating in sports is immoral.” That makes me think that cheating-as-immoral is a clunky thing to deal with at least when it comes to sports. Better to jettison it and be like, “Yo, it just sucks aesthetically and pragmatically, let’s not do it.”
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Justin Caouette
June 9, 2012
George,
Any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity has boundaries and there are actions that one ought to do and other actions that one ought not do depending on the activity one is
engaged in.
Alistair MacIntyre has a nice section on “practices” in ‘After Virtue’ that includes sports among other things (driving, etc.). His understanding of practices will be helpful to understand why this is an ethical question in the first place. He discusses goods internal to a practice, cheating would not produce those goods internal to the practice of any particular sport, but rather than give a detailed argument here I’ll quickly switch gears and offer you something brief.
I’ve claimed that there is a difference with deception and cheating. I’ve allowed that deception on its own is not cheating so your sandpaper example seems redundant.
With regards to “sports being something that we do not have to participate in” – well, honestly, I’m not seeing the relevance. Should we not consider human action in all contexts when thinking about morality? Should we not consider what we should and shouldn’t do in all aspects of our lives? Some people play sports for much of their free time, do you not think that this time and the decisions they make while engaged in sports have ramifications to their character development and future moral decisions outside of sport?
Again, I see morality as pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong. Cheating should fall into this realm of judgement. And yes, even cheating in sports.
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George Kassimis
June 8, 2012
Also, flopping is too lame a topic to discuss. The real Pandora boxes for all this lies in baseball.
Read this excellent article about doctoring baseballs by my fav baseball writer, Jonah Keri:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7553701/the-lost-art-doctoring-baseball
I mean, Bruce Sutter, in all his awesomeness already, added a layer to this discussion. If it was bad to make a ball dip and dive by doctoring a ball, why isn’t it bad to make it dip and dive WITHOUT doctoring it?
And if cheating is immoral, then why is the potential for immorality fun to discuss in baseball? The things pitchers did to hide their deception was funny, and (as if the drama of the moment weren’t enough) The Shot Heard Round the World is infinitely more fascinating to discuss whether or not it was a benefit of stealing signs. If all this is immoral, shame on us for making it fun.
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Justin Caouette
June 9, 2012
Jonah Keri is a great writer, I can see why he’s your favorite.
You might find flopping lame, but I find baseball pretty lame as a sport. So, for me, flopping is a better topic because it deals with a better sport. I know how you feel about baseball so we’ll have to agree to disagree here. I was brought up on basketball and football and played both for quite some time. The topics discussed in those sports will almost always be more appealing to me. But, you’ve asked a couple of questions so I’ll give you a brief response.
(1) If it was bad to make a ball dip and dive by doctoring a ball, why isn’t it bad to make it dip and dive WITHOUT doctoring it?
Because you’re making it dip and dive utilizing a physical talent that you developed or were born with (likely the former). By doctoring the ball the doctoring process is the reason the ball is moving the way that it is not your physical ability to throw the ball in that manner. If all we cared about was the ball diving and dipping I’m sure we could produce a device to do it better than most humans can. We engage in baseball not because of the finished product which can be produced, we watch the game because of the physical excellence that is showcased within the rules of a game that we’ve come to love. Allowing any form of “cheating” affects the integrity of the game. Whether it be doctoring a ball or taking steroids. Both are forms of cheating and both should be disallowed to protect what we love about the game.
(2) And if cheating is immoral, then why is the potential for immorality fun to discuss in baseball?
It’s not fun. It’s not fun to hear about the deception that Roger Clemens is currently involved in to cover up the older deception he was involved in when he was cheating during his playing days. It’s far from fun, it’s sad!
Focusing on the humor that might be involved during the process of an attempt to deceive is the wrong sort of focus for those that are serious about the game and about how people should act.
The ‘shot heard round the world’ doesn’t become more fascinating to me if in fact Boby Thomson stole a sign or not. It actually takes away from the play if he did. Maybe it’s just me but cheating rarely adds anything but a black eye to those that engage in it and to the game they’re playing. Shame on those that engage in it, it only hurts their legacy and the legacy of the game their engaging in.
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petriesan
June 8, 2012
flopping? how the jump stop? Iwas always taught that was travelling.
these are games and entertainment. Enjoy them. If you cannot enjoy the game when someone pushes the boundaries or when a ref misses a call, find something else to do.
I have been a ref (not at that level) and it is not as easy as everyone in their armchair thinks it is
Nice post
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Justin Caouette
June 9, 2012
I thoroughly enjoy the games (with or without flopping).
If attempting to make the games called more consistently and/or more fairly by asking questions regarding the rules in a blog is not your sort of thing, I suggest to find something else to read.
I have also been a ref (not at that level) and agree that it is not easy as people might think. I’m not blaming the refs, I’m attempting to call out the players that do it in order to change the outcome of the game in their favor. It’s cheating and they shouldn’t engage in it!
Thanks for the reply.
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shangreene
June 10, 2012
I think that the game should be immediately stopped and the offending player be given an intense, public Indian burn! That would straighten his ass out!
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Justin Caouette
June 11, 2012
Touche!
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