{"id":699601,"date":"2026-05-28T08:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699601\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T08:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:01:16","slug":"its-being-taught-tyrese-haliburton-reveals-grim-truth-about-nbas-flopping-epidemic-amid-shai-gilgeous-alexander-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699601\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2019It\u2019s Being Taught\u2019 \u2014 Tyrese Haliburton Reveals Grim Truth About NBA\u2019s Flopping Epidemic Amid Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selling fouls in the NBA has never been as controversial as it is today, with players like reigning back-to-back league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seeming to have perfected the craft. The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> superstar is facing mounting backlash for flopping to draw fouls and get easy points at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s rival in last year\u2019s NBA Finals, Indiana Pacers<\/a> star Tyrese Haliburton, weighed in on the controversy during Wednesday\u2019s episode of \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show,\u201d making a troubling revelation.<\/p>\n

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Tyrese Haliburton Reveals Flopping Is Part of NBA Teams\u2019 Training<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee first asked Haliburton about his opinion on the growing frustration surrounding players engaging in \u201cunethical hoops\u201d by \u201cfooling the referees\u201d during this year\u2019s playoffs, particularly Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

The two-time All-Star, recovering from a torn right Achilles sustained in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals against OKC, admitted that exaggerating contact to draw a whistle is being instructed as part of most teams\u2019 player development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s being taught. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as much head coach teaching as much as it is like player development,\u201d Haliburton said<\/a>. \u201cEven before you get to the NBA, it\u2019s just something you like, kind of work on by nature.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the best scorers are usually the guys who get to the free-throw line the most. So, it\u2019s definitely something they work on, even in pickup, they\u2019re working on how they can draw fouls, things like that. I think that\u2019s a part of the game,\u201d the 6-foot-5 playmaker added.<\/p>\n

MORE: \u2018It\u2019ll Be Instantaneous\u2019 \u2014 Adam Silver Announces Major Change After Officials\u2019 Incorrect Call During Spurs-Thunder<\/a><\/p>\n

McAfee and his co-hosts were left in disbelief upon hearing Haliburton\u2019s answer. Still, the floor general doubled down on his statement, noting that players are mostly \u201cembellishing\u201d contact rather than \u201cfalling over out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyrese Haliburton Defends Under-Fire NBA Officials<\/p>\n

Haliburton also came to the defense of NBA referees, who have endured relentless criticism for questionable calls and no-calls throughout the postseason, especially when Gilgeous-Alexander suits up.<\/p>\n

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The 2024 assists leader contended that the NBA has the \u201cbest officials in sports,\u201d contrasting them to overseas referees in FIBA play.<\/p>\n

Still, officiating complaints have become so rampant that NBA commissioner Adam Silver made a head-turning announcement on Wednesday on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver told McAfee that the league plans to deploy an AI-automated camera system to review plays. The commissioner explained that these modern cameras will be positioned around the court to \u201ctake all of those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver also shared his view on flopping and assured McAfee that the NBA is working tirelessly to appease its viewers, with innovative technology at the forefront of those efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Selling fouls in the NBA has never been as controversial as it is today, with players like reigning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7221,590,2656,340805,5548,134767,87003,12841,85,16319],"class_list":["post-699601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-officials","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-pat-mcafee-show","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}