Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki on flopping in the NBA: 'It's part of winning'

Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki says that the NBA will never be able to eliminate flopping because it is "part of sports." (Orlando Sentinel/Getty Images)

Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki believes that flopping is "part of the game" and will never be eliminated from the NBA, according to The Dallas Morning News' Eddie Sefko.

Under the current system, NBA players receive $5,000 fines for flops, though Commissioner David Stern recently said that he believes the policy "isn't enough." The Miami Heat's Chris Bosh was the most recent player to be fined for flopping after his dive in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

But Nowitzki said this week that while obvious flops can be controlled, selling calls is "part of winning."

From dallasnews.com's Mavericks blog:

“We’re never going to get rid of it,” he said recently. “But you got to limit it. It’s part of sports. It’s part of winning. Some people are smart and do a little extra thing to kind of sell the call. To me, that’s part of sports.

“You don’t want the obvious ones, the really, really bad ones. I think we’d love to get rid of those.

“But if somebody really does get shoved or hit a little bit, just to sell it a little for the referees so it does get the call, I don’t have a problem with that. I think that’s part of the game.”

providing $100,000 to Southern Methodist University to fund a study on the physics of flopping