{"id":676992,"date":"2026-06-01T01:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/676992\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T01:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:18:13","slug":"stop-calling-sga-a-flopper-4-time-nba-champion-defends-thunder-star-shai-gilgeous-alexander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/676992\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2019Stop Calling SGA a Flopper\u2019 \u2014 4-Time NBA Champion Defends Thunder Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite numerous examples flooding social media this postseason of the OKC Thunder\u2019s two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander selling contact to officials from minimal, or, in some instances, no contact at all, one person has jumped to this year\u2019s NBA MVP\u2019s defense: Draymond Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether Green, with his own well-known history of questionable on-court behavior, is the person to sway public opinion is unknown. Regardless, he is standing up for the underfire league MVP.<\/p>\n

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Draymond Green Jumps to The Defense Of MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s style of play to draw fouls has been trending and mocked throughout social media this entire postseason run. Statistically, he had as many baskets as he had made free throws, 132 each.<\/p>\n

An article by Tom Haberstroh on Yahoo Sports shows<\/a>, in terms of data, that Gilgeous-Alexander falls twice as often as his peers. Statistically or through the eye test, he falls regardless of the whistle, more than anyone.<\/p>\n

There have been questionable instances of Gilgeous-Alexander collapsing to the floor without visible contact <\/a>during the 7-game series against the San Antonio Spurs. And there have been several low-light reels trending on the social media platform X featuring his various falls.<\/p>\n

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Another questionable look for the guard is that the Athletic reported that his representatives sent Underdog Sports a cease-and-desist letter<\/a> over its mocking of his foul-baiting.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the outspoken Green, a 4-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors<\/a> and a multiple All-NBA defender, is not accepting criticism of the superstar guard and has stood up to the \u201cflopping\u201d accusations against the Thunder guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really care. As a defender, I\u2019ve played against guys that flop. Guys that flop don\u2019t win.\u201d Green then proclaimed that the recently voted MVP can\u2019t be considered one because he won a championship last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cY\u2019all can stop calling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a \u2018flopper\u2019 coz he\u2019s a champion. I can tell you \u2018floppers\u2019 don\u2019t really win, it really don\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He then claimed that those who complain about it should simply play better defense. \u201cWorried about flopping? Play better defense. If not shut up, that\u2019s how I feel about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Green\u2019s wish was Stephon Castle\u2019s demand. Castle, who was employed as SGA\u2019s primary defender, did a superb job in limiting Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

The Spurs beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City Saturday night with a scintillating display to clinch the Western Conference and set up a mouth-watering NBA Finals against the New York Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear, there is nothing illegal about making the most of contact to earn trips to the charity stripe. Stars such as Trae Young<\/a>, Joel Embiid<\/a>, and James Harden<\/a> have, in the past, benefited from knowing how to attack the paint and take advantage of various levels of contact to get calls.<\/p>\n

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However, fair or not, the perception right now is that Gilgeous-Alexander is taking it to an extreme. Fully evidenced by his two MVP awards, he\u2019s more than capable of dominating on the court and scoring at all three levels without resorting to contorting his body to sell contact and fall to the ground as often as he has this season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly an unpalatable brand of basketball for NBA purists, with several legitimate claims that his behavior was \u2018unethical.\u2019 There will be increased pressure on the NBA to clamp down on \u2018flopping\u2019 next season, both from him and the NBA as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite numerous examples flooding social media this postseason of the OKC Thunder\u2019s two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander selling contact…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[13339,2243,6418,5555,355,5489,361,9600,12205,6402,2116,191679,6407,108,99,40552,228071,47168],"class_list":["post-676992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-james-harden","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sean-wright","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-stephon-castle","tag-tom-haberstroh","tag-trae-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}