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From Yahoo!,

On Thursday, Howard again sidestepped any barbs at O’Neal. But when asked if he tries to take charges or has ever attempted a flop, Howard said that’s not a center’s role.

“They’ve been trying to get me to take charges, and I just can’t do it,” Howard said. “When we do charge drills in practice, I don’t like them. Like I tell my guys, I’m not taking a charge. If I’m 7 feet, I’m supposed to be blocking a shot.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

Also it's good to know that they (prolly most teams) have charge drill in training, namely, flopping training. And no doubt that takes 80 percent of Utah's training time.

hackle wrote:Also it's good to know that they (prolly most teams) have charge drill in training, namely, flopping training. And no doubt that takes 80 percent of Utah's training time.

i bet Utah got a coach specially for flopping.

Look, I hate Utah as much as the next guy, but we're opening ourselves up for all kinds of nonsense when WE'RE criticizing other teams for flopping.

Battier, Scola, and Hayes are among the top floppers in the game, and even YAO tries to take charges, for god's sake.

It just seems a little disingenuous, don't you think?

jove9 wrote:Look, I hate Utah as much as the next guy, but we're opening ourselves up for all kinds of nonsense when WE'RE criticizing other teams for flopping.

Battier, Scola, and Hayes are among the top floppers in the game, and even YAO tries to take charges, for god's sake.

It just seems a little disingenuous, don't you think?

yes that's true, all teams have charge drill. it's just Yao pulling the crap is stupid

whether yao takes a charge or goes for the block the end result is still the same... a foul on yao

Yao is such a pussy. Comments like this only piss me off more. Dikembe has stated the same thing Howard has on numerous occasions, even going so far as to say he's told Yao, yet our soft ass center continues to try and take the charge. It makes me sick. I realize that he's a bumbling, uncoordinated goofball, but you'd think he'd have learned by now that if you're the tallest player in the league, you should be able to block shots.

The difference between Scola and Battier on our team is that they don't flop the exaggerate or embellish, most of the time these two take hits on these plays. But to a degree you are defenitiely right because nobody is completely innocent of not flopping.

jove9 wrote:Look, I hate Utah as much as the next guy, but we're opening ourselves up for all kinds of nonsense when WE'RE criticizing other teams for flopping.

Battier, Scola, and Hayes are among the top floppers in the game, and even YAO tries to take charges, for god's sake.

It just seems a little disingenuous, don't you think?

Taking a charge and flopping is in no way the same thing.

If you're in the habit of taking charges, you try to sell them by flopping occasionally.

While they are not the same thing, they ARE related.

Hate to do it...but I agree with Jove

Yao tries to take more than his fair share of charges.

Yeah, though that might not have been a developed problem had the league let him play defense his first 4 years. You adapt.

barnsleyman123 wrote:The difference between Scola and Battier on our team is that they don't flop the exaggerate or embellish, most of the time these two take hits on these plays. But to a degree you are defenitiely right because nobody is completely innocent of not flopping.

Scola definitely does sell the flop.

Scola flop and battier too, but Yao trying that is stupid. he should be trying to block shots, not taking charges.

Okay, I will talk about this because I believe I have a bit of expertise on this subject.

Firstly, centres are the most screwed players in Basketball. They get hit all the time, and are told to "suck it up" as they are the biggest out on the court, hits on a big man aren't as obvious as say someone of Nate Robinsons size. Basically this means that a Centre gets screwed offensively, (slight bump they flop, charge is called. The centre gets slammed in offense, arms hacked, no call.

This is where flopping comes in. You do the right thing, get in front of the man and play D, (Not like guards who swipe at the ball behind the back off the dribble, because they got blown away off the first step, no call.) and get hit in the chest. It's simple physics from there, you run into a paper wall, you'll go through it. Run into a brick wall, you stop short. So players go down to try and get the call, or otherwise it's usually a no call, or a foul on the defender, as they didn't have "proper" position.

I won't even go into situations where they offence initiates the contact, (centre jumps straight up in his "cylinder" which extends from the floor to the ceiling in a straight line.) and the defence is given the foul. It seems that the offence can use their arm to shield/push a player off, but that you can't make solid body contact in the post, otherwise it's a charge.

In the NBA, I believe that a lot of this has to do with the changes over the last decade in the game. it has become quicker, and players seem to have become smaller in many ways. As long as players continue to flop, and get away with it, the more it will happen. What is hard to judge, is when a player is taking a legitimate hit, and when they are flopping. and again, if it's what you have to do to get the call, then you do it. Perhaps Yao should badly miss a few jump hooks, (because players hang off his arm, no call.) even go as far to cop a few fines for being very vocally critical of the reffing, file a formal complaint with the NBA, complain so more, cop another fine, and see if he has made his point. Alternatively, he should Slam the crap out of anyone who drives on him, cop a few Flagrant graded fouls, cop a minor suspension, and vow to continue doing so, until the great David Stern seriously looks into the issue. I don't think Stern would be too happy, if Yao shelved a few of the leagues stars for a month or two.

Gone are the days of having a team enforcer, (Charles Oakley) someone who will take a few cheap shots like that.

I say I am qualified (of sorts) to talk about this, because Blocking shots is something I do really well. And a large amount of being a succesful shot blocker is knowing when to swat, or just alter the shot enough to miss. This is why Olajuwon was the greatest ever, not every Blocked shot needs to be a fly swat, you just need to make the player think it might be, then half your job is done for you.

T-Wack wrote:Yao is such a pussy. Comments like this only piss me off more. Dikembe has stated the same thing Howard has on numerous occasions, even going so far as to say he's told Yao, yet our soft ass center continues to try and take the charge. It makes me sick. I realize that he's a bumbling, uncoordinated goofball, but you'd think he'd have learned by now that if you're the tallest player in the league, you should be able to block shots.

atleast all these guys are willing to take a charge... even Dikembe if he had no choice...

not like your boy Tmac... he would be running the other way...

stockmarketgod wrote:

T-Wack wrote:Yao is such a pussy. Comments like this only piss me off more. Dikembe has stated the same thing Howard has on numerous occasions, even going so far as to say he's told Yao, yet our soft ass center continues to try and take the charge. It makes me sick. I realize that he's a bumbling, uncoordinated goofball, but you'd think he'd have learned by now that if you're the tallest player in the league, you should be able to block shots.

atleast all these guys are willing to take a charge... even Dikembe if he had no choice...

not like your boy Tmac... he would be running the other way...

oh no, not again.

lol

Haven't charge drills doesn't mean you practice flopping, it may be learning where to position yourself to take the charge (ie. outside the circle instead of inside) so you won't get call for the foul.

Ton of guys flop; in a real basketball game out on the playground, when guy bump to you, you generally get knock back but rarely ever fall like these players. However, I wouldn't consider a little acting, when there are real contacts, flopping.. but players like Raja Bell, Gino, Pau Gasol, and Kirilenko fall back on tiniest contact, these girls ruin the game for me with their flopping.

Yes our players take charges, but none of them go to the lengths that guys like Kirilenko and Harpring do. It's one thing to let someone run into you and then fall as opposed to creating the contact then flopping back...see: Harpring runs into Yao and gets the foul called.