Sunday, July 4, 2010

Flagrant Foul Analysis

Since the title of this blog is Flagrant Foul, I figure I should at least talk about the topic of flagrant fouls. The flagrant foul is one of the more misunderstood rules in the NBA and I think we have reached a point where refs are declaring hard personal fouls to be flagrant anytime the fouled player spends any amount of time on the ground (which in some cases, the fouled player knows this and draws it out longer than necessary).

Let's take a look at the official rule according to the NBA's website:
a. If contact committed against a player, with or without the ball, is interpreted to be unnecessary, a flagrant foul--penalty (1) will be assessed. A personal foul is charged to the offender and a team foul is charged to the team.
b. If contact committed against a player, with or without the ball, is interpret-ed to be unnecessary and excessive, a flagrant foul--penalty (2) will be assessed. A personal foul is charged to the offender and a team foul is charged to the team.
That is quite vague, so the NBA also has a section explaining it a little better:
These fouls are considered unnecessary and/or excessive. There are two types of flagrant fouls, 1 and 2. A flagrant 1 is unnecessary contact. This is usually when a defensive player swings and makes hard contact with the offensive player or makes hard contact and then follows through. A flagrant foul 2 is unnecessary and excessive contact. This usually has a swinging motion, hard contact, and a follow through.
This video seems to be a good example of a flagrant 1 foul. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l95q5N9tFJw

This video shows what was called a flagrant 2 foul, but I don't think there was much of a follow through. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RAYXb5MqXY I'm not entirely sure it should be a flagrant 1. To me, it looks like Devin Harris went for the ball but missed and ended up taking out Moon. Also in this video the officials look at the replay to determine if it is a flagrant 2 or not, the problem with that is in slow-motion, fouls tend to look a lot more hard and intentional than if it were just seen in real time.

The significance between getting a 1 or 2 assessed is the size of penalty. A flagrant 2 is immediate ejection and a higher fine. The good thing if you feel there has wrongly been assigned a flagrant foul is that the league office reviews each one to possible change the decision on if it was a foul or not. However, while it is unlikely and rare, the league can take a personal foul called in a game and turn it into a flagrant later.

According to foxsports.com, there were 53 flagrant fouls assessed to players during the 2009-2010 season. Portland's Juwan Howard led the way individually with 4 flagrant fouls.

The flagrant foul is different than the technical foul or the personal foul and can effect a game's outcome and a player's income. I think the days of super-physical ball has been shut down with more hard fouls become flagrant fouls. I personally, wish more hard contact were still allowed.

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