Finally fouls for flopping

Now kids who are 8, 9 years old are stroking 3-pointers from the high school line.

But not everything has been a positive. During the St. Ignatius-Serra “Jungle Game” Tuesday night, I saw, for the first time, a call from officials I’ve never seen before. Twice during the Wildcats’ 83-57 win, an official blew his whistle, approached the scorer’s table and signaled a foul, with his hands turned up and using a lifting motion.

As I waited for Serra head coach Chuck Rapp to finish up his post-game meeting with his team, I caught up with three-man officiating crew as they were making their way out of the gym. I asked them what that call was and found out it is a fairly new rule. The call and signal was for flopping — a rule that was implemented last season, but I only saw it called for the first time Tuesday night.

During a game, each team is given one flop warning. The next one, and subsequent calls, become technical fouls against the offending team. Given the amount of flopping at the NBA level — or the leg kickout on a shot, trying to draw a foul — it’s no surprise that it has made its way to the high school level.

Obviously, this is a by-product of the club/AAU/private coach culture that has permeated youth sports, because high school coaches, I’m pretty sure, are not teaching their players how to bait officials into a call by suddenly dropping to the floor with even the slightest contact.

Credit to the officials for recognizing what the players are trying to do. Hopefully they can regulate it out of the game — at least at the high school level.

***

I’m not a huge car guy, but do know my way around them. I’ve taken in my fair share of car shows and my vehicle would be instantly recognizable to anyone remotely familiar with cars.

Those same people would also know that there is a higher level of my car, one that is more powerful, but less fuel efficient.

So obviously I have chosen less fuel consumption over sheer power and speed, but if you didn’t know any better, you could mistake my car for its bigger brother.

Which is an issue I’ve been running into the last several weeks as other cars have pulled up next to me on freeway, looking for a race.

Happened Tuesday night, around 11 p.m. Cruising on Interstate 880, guy in a convertible BMW pulls up next to me and starts throwing revs. I glance his direction — younger guy, probably early 20s, top down in 50-degree weather at 70 mph.

Classic.

I continue my pace, paying no attention to Bobby Bimmer. Turns out, we’re going the same way, so he’s playing cat-and-mouse for the next 10 miles, which become an annoyance and a nuisance.

The fact of the matter is this: I’m a middle-aged guy, who drives a nice-looking car and I simply don’t want to be embarrassed. First off, I’m not that guy. Maybe at one time I might have taken him up on his challenge, but I’m not doing that now. I’m just trying to go home, man.

Secondly, the chances of him blowing my doors off was highly likely.

***

Well, my wife’s good-luck 49ers shoes ran out of magic last week as the 49ers had their six-game winning streak snapped with a 13-3 loss to Seattle in the regular-season finale.

I knew I had to write that column last week ahead of the defeat because I had a pretty good idea San Francisco was going to lose to Seattle.

We’ll see if there is any mojo left this weekend, when the 49ers go cross country to take on Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.