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2026-27 · Regular season
Paul George draws the NBA’s first flopping fine of 2026-27, and Court iQ changes two baskets on Wednesday
The league office fined Paul George $2,000 for a flop in his Celtics debut, the first postgame flopping fine of the season, and the Replay Center used Court iQ to change two baskets on Wednesday.
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The NBA league office handed out its first postgame flopping fine of the 2026-27 season one day into the schedule, and the player who drew it was Paul George. The Celtics forward was fined $2,000 after a league office review of a play from Boston’s 121-113 opening-night loss at Detroit on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The league announced the fine on its officiating account on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET (1:30 a.m. Thursday in Cairo). No suspension comes with it, and George is available for Boston’s next game.
It was an expensive footnote to a big night. George scored 38 points in his first game for the Celtics, the most by any player in a Boston debut, before the Pistons used a 23-0 fourth-quarter run to erase a 22-point deficit. We broke down that performance in Paul George’s 38-point Celtics debut in numbers, and the game itself in our Pistons-Celtics recap.
How the NBA’s flopping fines work
There are two separate ways to be punished for a flop, and George got the one that costs money.
If a referee calls a flop during the game, the player is charged with a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul and the other team gets one free throw. That in-game penalty was tried for one season in 2023-24 and made permanent by the Board of Governors in July 2024. A flop called on the court does not bring a fine and does not count toward a player’s total of postgame flops.
The league office can also review plays after the final buzzer, even when nothing was called. Since 2023-24, those postgame flops have been fined on the same scale as technical fouls: $2,000 to start, with the amount rising for repeat offenders. George’s fine is the first step on that ladder for this season.
Flopping was one of the points of emphasis in the officiating guidance the league released before the season, along with protecting a shooter’s landing space. Our explainer on what the NBA told referees about flopping and landing space covers what does and does not count as a flop.
Court iQ changes two scores on Wednesday
The Replay Center in Secaucus, N.J., was also busy on the second night of the season. Twice on Wednesday, replay officials used NBA Court iQ, the league’s camera-based ball and player tracking system, to change how many points a basket was worth.
In the third quarter of Mavericks at Rockets, a shot by Houston’s Amen Thompson that was first ruled a 2-pointer was upgraded to a 3-pointer. In the second quarter of Warriors at Lakers, it went the other way: a shot by Golden State’s Yaxel Lendeborg first ruled a 3-pointer was changed to a 2.
Neither call decided the game. Houston beat Dallas 128-110 (recap), and the Lakers beat Golden State 127-105 (recap). But they show how often the system now enters games. Last season its best-known uses were goaltending reviews, telling a legal block from goaltending by tracking whether the ball was still rising when the defender touched it. Wednesday’s reviews were about where a shooter’s feet were.
What to watch
The league office usually announces fines and suspensions in the U.S. afternoon, which is late evening or after midnight in Cairo. More postgame flopping fines are likely as reviews of the first week continue, and any player fined again moves up the scale. Follow every rules and league-office story on our Around the league page.
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