NBA approves rule changes on coach's challenges and flopping for 2023-24 season

On Tuesday, the NBA's Board of Governors approved two rule changes for the coming season - one to give coaches a second challenge if their first one is successful, the other being a technical foul for flopping; both changes received recommendation from the NBA's Competition Committee.

By Maryam Clark

Image: Phoenix Suns center Marcin Gortat falls backward to the floor as Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee is called for a charge

On Tuesday, the NBA's Board of Governors approved two rule changes for the coming season - one to give coaches a second challenge if their first one is successful, the other being a technical foul for flopping.

The challenge rule change is something that coaches have wanted for some time.

Coaches who challenge a call and are successful will get the chance to make a second challenge - with one catch. Teams must have a timeout in order to call for a challenge; that timeout would not be retained even if a coach won that first challenge.

Image: New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry challenges an official

Players who flop - or are called for committing "a physical act that reasonably appears to be intended to cause the officials to call a foul on another player," the league said - will be given a non-unsportsmanlike technical, which will not count as a personal foul or lead to ejection.

But it will give the opposing team a free throw. Possession, however, will not change, and flopping violations can't be directly reviewed by a coach's challenge. They can also be added to a call during a review of a different play.

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Officials can choose to stop live play to call a flopping violation, or can wait until the next "neutral opportunity" to do so.

Image: Phoenix Suns center Marcin Gortat falls backward to the floor as Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee is called for a charge

Floppers will be fined $2,000, with fines rising incrementally for repeat offenders. The flopping rule will be on a one-year experiment.

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Both rule changes first got unanimous recommendation from the NBA's Competition Committee, composed of players, representatives from the National Basketball Players Association, coaches, governors, team basketball executives and referees.

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