Photo Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

James Harden Is Taking His Flopping To Another Level

Before last year’s season started, the NBA implemented a new rule labeled as the ‘Harden Rule’. The rule was an attempt to limit players from collecting cheap shooting fouls, and is an extension of the rip-through move that was implemented earlier that year. Referees are now supposed to be making distinction between fouls that occur on the drive or gather versus fouls on actual shooting motion. If a player has not yet gathered the ball when contact occurs, it’s a common foul, not a shooting foul.

The name of the rule alone explains how good Harden is at drawing fouls. Drawing fouls and flopping go hand in hand at times, and while I won’t accuse Harden of being a constant flopper, he sometimes does have flopping moments.

This flop from last night’s game is special though. It’s special because he wasn’t trying to draw a foul. No, there wasn’t even an opponent involved. Harden simpy got so high for a dunk that his nose bled… at least that’s what he was trying to make you think.

https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1067222899046694912

Turns out, it was just one of Harden’s ‘nosebleeding celebrations’ he has done before. Only this time, he went with it for so long, that even his teammates thought something was wrong, unlike the commentator, who instantly knew what was going on.

“There nothing wrong with him that’s just his antics…”