Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade has been fined $5,000 Monday after a game review showed that he over-exaggerated a foul from San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili during Game 2 of the finals.
Wade drew the foul against Ginobili during the Sunday night game with 4:09 left in the second quarter. About 35 feet from the basket, Ginobili took a swipe at the ball and failed, making contact with Wade’s hand. Wade then flung his head back to make it appear as if he were hit in the face.
The Miami Herald reports that Wade said, “I saw Manu coming out of the corner of my eye to try to steal it so my only thing was to make sure he didn’t. He swiped and he wound up hitting me and the ref called it a foul. We move on.”
This act of pretending a foul has been committed in the hopes of fooling an official into blowing the whistle is known as flopping.
The Bleacher Report claims that many fans saw Wade’s fine coming. This was the fifth flopping violation of the playoffs. Players are not fined in the regular season until their second flop of the year. In the playoffs, every flop is a fine.
The Heat-Spurs series is currently tied 1-1. Game 3 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Miami.