From the kids on your social media feeds who brought you Tebowing and Planking comes this winter's latest trend: LeBroning.
James can rest easy: He's arguable the best player in the world following back-to-back NBA Championships and MVP honors. But right now he's blowing up the web with people mimicking his dramatics of falling to floor after barely being touched in games.
But King James isn't the first person to "flop" in the NBA. For decades players have been trying to coerce officials to blow their whistles by acting like a cannon shot them after any little touch. While there have been numerous famous floppers--Dikembe Mutombo and anyone from Duke comes to mind--the grand poobah of flopping has to be Vlade Divac.
The 7-foot-1 big man was one of the first European stars in the NBA, but the Serbian center also perfected the flop. Night in and night out he battled other Goliaths like David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal, so he had to find an a dvantage. His slight body awkwardness and theatrics were often effective in getting his opponents into foul trouble. Shaq famously called out Divac during the 2002 Western Conference Finals for flopping while the much bigger O'Neal would back him down to the basket.
In 2012, the NBA started fining players for excessive flopping. Today, the league rings them up to the tune of $5,000 for a first offense--and fines can reach $30,000.
So by our calculations, if Divac was called for flopping at least once per year during 22 NBA seasons--we're being modest here with just one a year--he'd owe $110,000. We just wish Gifs and Vine were around in the 90s so we could have "Vlade-ing" in our vocabulary. After all, despite today's viral trend, LeBron has only been fined once--during the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers.
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