Brooklyn Nets reserve power forward Reggie Evans became the first player in the NBA to be fined under the league’s new anti-flopping rules.
The league announced Wednesday night that Evans was fined $5,000 for picking up his second flopping violation of the season late in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s 95-90 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Evans tweeted:
After Evans made a pass near midcourt against the Lakers, he was contacted by Metta World Peace, but overexaggerated the contact as to make it look like a shove. World Peace was whistled for a foul.
World Peace took issue with Evans’ flop, as well as what he thought were two flops by Gerald Wallace of the Nets, in a series of tweets after Tuesday’s game.
Asked Wednesday night what he thought of Evans’ fine, World Peace said he was surprised.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “Are you kidding me? I’d rather Gerald Wallace get fined than Evans.”
World Peace said the larger issue is the constantly changing interpretations of how fouls should be called.
“They should just let the refs ref,” he said. “They keep changing the rules. The refs are doing the best job they can. If you keep changing the rules they’re going to miss calls. And then we blame the refs for that. For these missed calls. If they stopped changing the rules, the refs would’ve been adjusted to this. They’re just trying to do their job. Back in the days, that was never a foul.”
Evans was warned for a flop during the Nets’ 102-97 victory against the Boston Celtics last Thursday.
His next violation would result in a $10,000 fine. A fourth violation would result in a $15,000 fine, a fifth $30,000, and six or more could lead to a suspension.
WRITTEN BY Mike Mazzeo | Special to ESPNNewYork.com – Information from ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Ramona Shelburne was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE
