05/27/2026
Check out today's Wednesday Word from FCA’s Daily Impact Play-
Have you ever seen a really good flop in a basketball game? Flopping is when a player intentionally falls or staggers, with little or no physical contact, to gain attention and cause an official to call a personal foul. Flopping became an art for a short time in the National Basketball Association. League officials and player associations complained enough to get it stopped. In 2013, the NBA instituted an anti-flopping rule where players are warned for the first flop and then given fines for other flops. Five flops in a game could get you suspended.
It should be a player’s focus and desire to play the game with integrity, intensity, fairness and with honest competition. The great benefit of sports is that it is played according to the rules, with genuine efforts to play that way.
It’s important to see that God isn’t the author of things like flopping. He is against all forms of cheating, dishonesty and deception. One of the important phrases given by God in the Bible from the verses mentioned above are to watch out for those who practice these things. The instruction is to beware of those who operate by planting seeds of deception and falsehood. It’s their purpose to create divisions and create obstacles among people and teams. God’s guidance is to avoid them and these things. Avoiding it on the court or in the game doesn’t mean to just stay away from flopping and trash talking players, but to avoid joining in those things.
Paul wraps up the warning by pointing out that cheating, dishonesty and deception – the obstacles and divisions – are contrary to what we have been taught. Coaches don’t normally teach their athletes to flop or trash talk. Why not? Because it is not part of honest competition. We need to avoid the things that are contrary to what we have learned from God.
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