An NBA ref explains the difference between flopping and selling a call

The flop is one of the most dramatic elements of basketball. Zach Zarba, a 15-year NBA referee, is here to weigh in on falling for a flop versus seeing a player sell a call. Sometimes, the difference is not so clear. Following is a transcript of the video.

Zach Zarba: My name is Zach Zarba and I'm a 15-year NBA referee. Flopping was a major concern a few years in the past, a few years back and they actually invoked a flopping fine where they would fine players who they thought were incessantly flopping. The flop is, it's part of the game. I think as a referee you never want to fall for a flop. The more you do this, we're not perfect. The more games you have under your belt, inevitably the more mistakes you'll make. I think people get confused sometimes with the selling of a call as opposed to flopping. Okay, the selling of a call is just showing what actually happened. And so if someone pushes off and the defender sells it by backing off, that's a legal play and that's not a flop. If someone pretends to get hit and fall down when there's actually no contact, that would be a flop.