"We don't teach flopping"- Darvin Ham fires back at Steve Kerr who accused LeBron James and the Lakers of 'gamesmanship'

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr made headlines following Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal series against the LA Lakers on Monday night. This came after his comments about the Lakers' intentional flopping to secure calls from officials.

Kerr spoke in-depth about the NBA’s flopping problem, saying that gamesmanship has become a major issue. During a Game 5 courtside interview on Wednesday night, Lakers coach Darvin Ham was asked about Kerr’s comments. Ham then disagreed with Kerr’s assessment of his team:

"Yeah, we don't teach flopping,” Ham said.

“We teach our players to play downhill and attack the paint and be forceful.”

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Steve Kerr says NBA should adopt FIBA’s anti-flopping rule

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr

As for Steve Kerr’s full comments about the issue of players flopping in the NBA, he offered a potential solution. Kerr said that the NBA should consider adopting FIBA’s anti-flopping rule to limit the amount of flopping that takes place in games:

“I think, to me, what I’ve learned coaching in FIBA — FIBA has a great rule, there’s a flop rule, and if a referee deems that a player has flopped, they just call a technical foul and it’s pretty penalizing,” Kerr said.

“So, the flopping has basically been eliminated from FIBA. We have the ability to do the same thing in the NBA if we want.”

Kerr then said that flopping is not just an issue in the playoffs but has become a year-round problem for the NBA:

“I think we should address it because the players are so smart and the entire regular season is about gamesmanship and trying to fool the refs, and this is how it’s been for a while,” Kerr said.

“It’s up to us as a league, do we want to fix this? Because if not, we’ll just get the Chris Paul swipe through at halfcourt when you’re in the bonus and for some reason, we’re shooting two free throws at a critical time of a playoff game when nothing has happened, nobody’s gained an advantage.

“So, my personal plea to the NBA (is) I think we can do better, in terms of cleaning up the flopping.”

Steve Kerr then took one last shot at the Lakers before finishing up his interview:

“In the meantime, I give the Lakers credit for the plays that they’ve been able to sell,” Kerr said.

The Lakers entered Wednesday night’s Game 5 with a 3-1 lead over the Warriors in their second-round series.