Why didn't Lebron get fined for flop?

[celticsclay]

Unless I missed a story somewhere, Lebron James did not get fine for falling backwards 5 feet after being lightly struck by his teammate Tristan Thompson in game 2. The flop was so egregious that "**** lebron" was trending on twitter. The play also served as a true case of the reasoning used by the league in introducing the flopping fines that trying to intentionally confuse the referee was a fineable offense. In this case, it did confuse the referee to the point that he falsely gave technicals to 2 players on the raptors that were rescinded because he thought they had struck James.

The game was then delayed as the referees reviewed what kind of contact could make Lebron fall back so hard and far.

This flop was embarrassing for both Lebron and the league and I can't understand for the life of me how this isn't a hefty fine. Tricking the referee and causing a delay in the game because of exaggerating contact is pretty bad and in my opinion should be at least a technical.
Edit: This masking makes it look like I said a curse word. The trend on twitter was a variation of lol (just to avoid confusion)

[the TRUTH]

Completely agree that he should have been fined. But this is par for the course for his career. He's a phenomenal player and athlete, but that doesn't change the fact that he's the most coddled player in NBA history, and has been since his career began.

[knuckleballer]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

[celticsclay]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

I mean. The contact was very light and he propelled himself backwards about 5 feet and held his jaw on the ground. The definition of flop is exaggerating contact to confuse the official. In this case he was successful in fooling the official into thinking someone took a hard shot at him (when nobody did). I don't think he can argue he did not exaggerate the contact. The league claims they want to stop players from exaggerating contact to fool the referees. This was a perfect opportunity to do so in a very high profile case. They decided not to, most likely because it is a star. I think this is a mistake on their part.

[danglertx]

I think since the refs bought it, Tristan Thompson should get a flagrant 2 and suspended a game.

[guava_wrench]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

Yeah. He didn't know who hit him, but he was hit in the face. It is one thing to exaggerate body to body contact. It is another to possibly overreact to being hit in the face.

[celticsclay]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

Yeah. He didn't know who hit him, but he was hit in the face. It is one thing to exaggerate body to body contact. It is another to possibly overreact to being hit in the face.

Possibly?

[knuckleballer]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

Yeah. He didn't know who hit him, but he was hit in the face. It is one thing to exaggerate body to body contact. It is another to possibly overreact to being hit in the face.

Possibly?

I think it was an overreaction and a flop, but it doesn't necessarily take much of a blow to the chin to daze someone.  Therefore, I think the NBA has to give a lot more leeway than a body blow like guava wrench mentioned.

[celticsclay]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

Yeah. He didn't know who hit him, but he was hit in the face. It is one thing to exaggerate body to body contact. It is another to possibly overreact to being hit in the face.

Possibly?

I think it was an overreaction and a flop, but it doesn't necessarily take much of a blow to the chin to daze someone.  Therefore, I think the NBA has to give a lot more leeway than a body blow like guava wrench mentioned.

Do you think if this was Marcus Smart or Jonas Jerkebro and the same thing happened (including causing the officially to incorrectly call two technicals and a review of the play) they would not have been fined?

[knuckleballer]

I agree that it was a flop, but he did in fact get hit in the chin by an elbow even though it was his teammate's elbow.  It's hard to fine a guy under the premise that he should not have been as hurt as he appeared.

Yeah. He didn't know who hit him, but he was hit in the face. It is one thing to exaggerate body to body contact. It is another to possibly overreact to being hit in the face.

Possibly?

I think it was an overreaction and a flop, but it doesn't necessarily take much of a blow to the chin to daze someone.  Therefore, I think the NBA has to give a lot more leeway than a body blow like guava wrench mentioned.

Do you think if this was Marcus Smart or Jonas Jerkebro and the same thing happened (including causing the officially to incorrectly call two technicals and a review of the play) they would not have been fined?

I don't know.  We've seen Smart get fined for reacting to fantom hits, but I don't remember anything that matches this circumstance.

[celticsclay]

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