Sports

Spurs Fan Trolls ‘Flopper’ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander For Falling When He’s Not Fouled

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iStockphoto / Scott Wachter-Imagn Images


Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the best basketball players on the planet. The reigning MVP has also been labeled a foul merchant.

Research shows that he falls down on shots at a far higher rate than his NBA counterparts. That includes on attempts in which he’s fouled and on plays where there’s no whistle.

It’s a habit at this point. Many times, it works in getting to the free throw line. Is it his goal to bait officials or is he protecting his body?

That debate is not one opposing fans give much thought. They’ve grown tired of the antics.

Spurs fan trolls Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with fake Oscar.

The Thunder are battling the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. A trip to the NBA Championship Round is on the table.

SGA has been strong through the first four games, averaging 24.8 points per game while adding 10.0 assists.

Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 99 points thus far in the Western Conference Finals. Thirty-three have come from the free throw stripe, where he’s shooting 97%.

That 33% rate is a bit higher than his regular season clip, where more than 25% of his total points came via the free throw.

Given those frequent trips, San Antonio has made it a point to antagonize. The clip above showed one fan’s creative troll of bringing a fake Oscar award to the arena. Others have gone the more conventional route of chanting from the stands.

SGA falls down… a lot.

Here’s a 36-second clip of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander falling down in Game 2 of the series. It shows him hitting the deck on at least seven of his 24 shots.

Tom Haberstroh of Yahoo! Sports has tracked his shots throughout the postseason. He came to one conclusion. SGA falls down more than any other player in the NBA – by a rather large margin.

On non-foul plays, he’s on the ground 10.7% of the time. When whistles are blown, that clip rises to 51.4%. Both are the highest in the playoff field.

It was seen again in Game 4.

There are some that believe he’s protecting himself from injury. He’d rather spread the impact across his body than risk landing on a defender’s foot and rolling an ankle.

Others, however, believe it’s a gimmick to draw fouls. Some instances are indefensible.

Whatever his reasoning, the foul merchant narrative will follow. It’s proven that he falls down more than any other player in the league.

It’s gotten so bad that Dillon Brooks introduced an SGA-inspired board game referencing his supposed foul baiting.

Spurs fans have made it their mission to troll. It doesn’t appear it will do much to prevent the tumbles from occurring in the future.