Kenneth Faried may be hearing from the league office soon. The Nuggets forward admitted Sunday that he intentionally flopped during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets' 116-100 loss to the Blazers, leading to a flagrant foul call against Blazers guard Steve Blake.
Kenneth Faried admits he flopped against the Trail Blazers
The Nuggets forward says he fell after absorbing a shot against Blazers point guard Steve Blake “to make sure the refs saw it.”
Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports
The play took place with 7:13 left in the game. Faried, whose Nuggets were trailing 96-83 at the time, set a back screen on Blake at the top of the key. He did so leading with his forearms.
You can watch the play in the video below.
Blake didn’t like the way in which the screen was set and shoved Faried in the chest. The 6’8, 228-pound forward fell to the floor, even though Blake is 6’3 and weighs 172 pounds. The two teams then exchanged words and Blake was eventually hit with a flagrant foul.
After the game, Faried was asked about the incident. Via CSNNW:
“He got mad I back-picked him,” said Faried. “I’m playing offense, I’m making sure my point guard got open, and he ran into the back pick trying to go to my point guard. Then he got mad about it and pushed me. Yeah, I fell down to make sure the ref saw it.”
Of course, this was all set off by a rough pick set by Faried. It wasn’t a dirty play at all, but it’s understandable why Blake was annoyed. And Faried, while flopping, did take a pretty good shot from Blake, one that might have been called a flagrant foul anyway.
This is probably one of those plays where everyone did something wrong. It will be interesting to see how the league office decides to handle it.
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