Tyrese Haliburton on criticism of SGA’s flopping: “it’s so overblown bro, stop it, it’s so overblown, it’s a lot…selling is a part of the game”
r/nba disliked that
It ain’t just this sub bro it’s fucking everywhere lol, it’s inescapable. We need some other drama so people stop talking about his handful of flop clips each game
Closest thing I can think of to this is like the javele McGee narrative when shaq was featuring him every night on shaqtin a fool. He’d have one or two head scratchers a night and everyone wrote him off as a clown and low iq player that was unplayable. Im glad he was able to change the perception about himself later on in his career, but media can and will absolutely run an agenda on someone and let it get out of control just for views.
I get clowned on by young heads for praising McGee’s BBIQ as greater than people think. Media absolutely will create a narrative and brainwash you into it
His first year with the Lakers (2018’s goated Meme Team) was so fucking good. I swear I remember him leading the league in bpg for like, a 2 month stretch.
He had 6 blocks in a game with us and they drug tested him lol
Funnily enough the first “flop” in the clip was a trip. So tired of these half and half calls for engagement bait. If we as a fandom don’t stop craving this BS people are going to start making AI flop clips since nobody watches other teams anyways apparently.
I mean.. the handful of flops every single game is pretty ridiculous though, no? All because Hali says it’s “part of the game” doesn’t mean fans have to accept it or like it.
It’s like the number one thing people hate about the NBA being done multiple times every game without any consequences.
Biased obviously but I think a lot of it is cause it feels so uniquely directed at Shai when there’s so mang in the league and throughout league history who do the same thing. But it seems like this hyper obsession on Shai specifically instead of it being directed at the league as a whole.
Also less so on here but on other platforms you say people say some straight up evil shit on Shai like hoping he gets injured and etc it’s just very excessive.
Harden was the most egregious, so he got the hate.
Shai came along and became the most egregious in the league, so now he gets the hate.
Honestly no clue why any Thunder fan would care. Heatles era was a ton of fun and we got attacked by everyone nonstop.
People want the league to clean up flopping and Shai is the most obvious example.
I think it’s directed at Shai because he’s the most egregious and obvious offender. I hate Colin Cowherd but all the clip examples he showed of Shai flopping in just the playoffs alone were ridiculous. So many of those compilations are made after a week of play every season.
He makes some really funny faces and movements too, Shai gets so silly with it, so expressive
I’d argue that fans are MORE qualified, as they’re the ones consuming the content, and find flopping to be bad for the brand.
Clippers drama is right there
It’s such a stupid criticism. There’s a post with 7k upvotes from yesterday about SGA’s FTA totals. Thats just a product of him being healthy and winning a championship and playing more games than anyone else. SGA has never led the league in FTA/game in the regular season or playoffs despite leading the league in drives per game the last two years
He got 3 FTA in Game 1 and made two in total, and despite being cold overall last night he still won by 18 without JDub playing.
FTA/GAME LEADERS (RS/Playoffs/Combined):
2018: Harden/LeBron/Harden
2019: Harden/Giannis/Harden
2020: Harden/Luka/Harden
2021: Embiid/Embiid/Embiid
2022: Embiid/Giannis/Embiid
2023: Giannis/Embiid/Giannis
2024: Giannis/Embiid/Giannis
2025: Giannis/Giannis/Giannis
2026: Luka/Paolo/Luka
7K are rookie numbers. 2023 Embiid was getting no lie 20-30K upvotes on hater posts. It was insane, I’ve never seen such intense hate before on a sports forum.
r/NBATalk 9⁄11
I wish some planes were flown into that subreddit it’s so bad
This sub is legit 75% just complaining at this point. Loads of people are literally logging on just to complain about a 10 second clip when they aren’t watching full games. It’s pathetic how bad the discussion is in here
Yeah, this post will get buried
Can you imagine how popular this post would be if Hali was complaining about Shai?
We can acknowledge it’s a part of the game and also acknowledge it’s a crappy part of the game. Players should be able to understand why fans don’t like it.
Sure but I think Hali is annoyed because SGA is treated as a scapegoat when he’s not even the worst with flopping
He’s top 5 easily, on the most prominent team in the league right now. Nobody gives a shit if Hali thinks it’s unfair :(
Even if you think he is top 5, the amount of attention he gets for it is insane, it is literally the largest story in the NBA rn.
Crazy how people have elevated levels of scrutiny for a guy that’s likely to repeat as MVP on a team that’s likely to repeat as NBA Champions, who could conceive of such a thing
I mean… hes mvp he just gets more attention than most players.
(Luka Dončić plays for the Lakers)
All flopping is dogshit. I’m not running defense for Luka. Just you OKC clowns
Do you even watch the Lakers play? Luka is more of a foul baiter/whiner. Reaves does flop though, but you didn’t mention him lol
Buddy you have Luka and Reaves lmao
Meanwhile you’re guy is #1 and your other guy is like #4 and currently being exposed without the whistle. But yeahh big bad SGA 😂
That would be Sengun. Idk how I haven’t really noticed but holy shit.
yeah it’s a league wide issue. if your town constantly had people drag racing in loud ass cars at 3am and waking everybody up, would you just blame the winner of the race? probably not, you’d blame everybody involved, and also blame your town a bit for not stopping it.
Hes the most prominent and best player about it though. Just like how harden got all the hate as the poster child for it back when he was
Flopping is technically not part of the NBA. There’s a tech for flopping but they just don’t implement it.
The tech for flopping is for situations where someone flops to sell contact for a foul that wasn’t there in the first place, there’s nothing in the rules against selling contact on a real foul
Per NBA
A “flop” is an attempt to either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call by exaggerating the effect of contact with an opposing player.
If there’s a legit foul then it’s not flopping.
That’s literally what I just said
I mean, sure, but if something is against the rules but not being enforced, the rule functionally doesn’t exist.
It is literally part of the game. They do it and they admit that they do it, so it is part of the game.
No. The same thing goes with handchecking it’s been around since the 90s but the NBA didn’t strictly enforce until ‘03. Flopping is illegal too and they will thoroughly get rid of it one day.
The problem has NEVER been that Shai doesn’t flop, the problem is that he gets 80% of the hate of all floppers when he should be getting about 10% of it, with other players(Deni, Luka, Reaves, Jokic, Jimmy Butler, Embiid, Harden, and so on)
We don’t like it because it’s not a skill that’s relevant to playing the game. Flopping shouldn’t be a skill set like perimeter shooting or court vision, and yet, here we are.
Bro we had Anderson varejao in Cleveland for how long and how many times did he get rewarded with “charges” that were the product of his hair flopping around to give extra dramatic effect on his flops? Nobody in Cleveland uttered a word about it until he left and did it against the cavs on the warriors.
You’re going to invoke the Warriors, kings of the illegal moving screen?
Get the hell outta here, bro.
You completely ignored my point and deflected to me somehow invoking the warriors, which is ironic since I said cavs fans ignored flopping while Andy was there and only became a problem when he did it in the finals against them.
Agreed.
Acknowledging it’s a crappy part of the game, agreed. Focusing on it and insisting that it “ruins the game” for you is wild to me though. If you could enjoy basketball at any point in the last 30 years, you should be able to enjoy it now. Fouls and free throws have been trending down for decades, and scoring has gone up over the same period. That means fouls and free throws (and flopping by extension) have less impact on the game than ever, but being outraged seems to be more fun than enjoying the games to a lot of people.
Fans should know it’s not the players fault for playing the game. There are anti flopping rules in the NBA, they just aren’t enforced. If they called that shit players would stop.
The outrage shouldn’t be at SGA, or any player. It’s the NBA, and the referees that have allowed it.
I see plenty of outrage toward the NBA and refs for it. But I can’t blame people for thinking the players deserve some of the vitriol alongside them.
I don’t see enough. Usually it’s just hate SGA day, or Jokic, or whatever the flavor of the month is.
That 2 weeks where the refs were on their shit and calling out players on their bullshit was magical. They were giving techs for flopping
Was it the 22-23 or 23-24? Not sure but it was the best basketball I’ve ever watched
Exactly, let’s keep that same energy. “Everyone can’t get super contracts, we can’t raise the salary cap. It’s just part of the game.”
He has 425 more FTAs than anyone else in the league. That should also be acknowledged when you’re trying to defend the guy by saying it’s overblown and “part of the game”. He’s clearly abusing the grace the game gives.
Flopping being part of the game is the problem, Tyrese….
There was that one week a few years ago where it was actually getting called. It was pretty amazing.
This is like saying fouling is not part of the game because it results in a foul call. If it is prohibited by the rules, it is certainly something that is considered part of the game or it would not be covered by the rules.
It has been a part of the game for my entire life. I wasn’t alive to see if guys in the ABA were baiting defenders into contact but pretty much since color TV, guys have been faking guys into the air and getting defenders to commit so they can punish them.
It used to be called “drawing fouls” and has been around since like the 70’s lol
The haliban 🤝 Shaisis
Tyrese is a real one, the outrage is performative, LA has Luka, Reaves, Smart and Lebron, if anyone actually cared about flopping they would be the ones catching the heat
Ah yes because Luka and Reaves have never gotten called out for flopping and baiting 😂
Flopping and baiting by any team is horrible. The point is it shouldnt be “part of the game”
There’s being called out in a post every now and then that gets 700 upvotes on Reddit and then there’s the 7K upvoted Shai hate posts + the entire national media + 100 different Twitter accounts spamming Shai foul clips after every single Thunder game.
I still dont know how Jimmy butler got away with his foulbaiting during the heat’s final runs. Dude was playing like how haters imagine how Shai plays
Cuz everyone wants to see the underdog 8 seed win, regardless of how it happens
Yeahh youre right. That, and the fact that he coasted through regular seasons meant that he flew under the radar despite getting 33% of his points from FTAs
That is the part they don’t understand lol
Lets not pretend like it’s close dude, be for real
Performative? I watch NBA at home, alone. I hate flopping. I found James Harden’s foul baiting back in Houston absolutely unwatchable despite how entertaining the other aspects of his offensive game were. I’d rather watch the highlights than watch a live NBA game because of the fouls.
Exactly, reading some of the comments here saying it’s actually the fans that are the problem is crazy. I can acknowledge it’s smart while also thinking it’s horrific to watch.
“How can I make this about the Lakers?”
Just to be clear, are you saying those guys don’t catch heat?
Show me the ESPN/Bill Simmons/Cowherd segment dedicated to talking about Luka’s foul baiting, he averaged the most FTA per game this season that should be easy,
Thunder fan and also a huge fan of this guy. The league will be a better place once he’s back.
Bro, there’s a thread about flopping every hour for the last 15 years. You think people… don’t care about it? People. Hate. Flopping. It’s not performative. People in media are normally just keeping their mouths shut. If the occasion is right they will open up.
People hate on Luka all the time for flopping, but Reaves and SGA are much worst at it. Luka initiates contact for fouls which is different than flopping. I don’t like it but the refs still call fouls. I hope they start calling offensive fouls for players that initiate contact and flop
This is what is happening in the discourse:
What should be happening:
I’m not trying to get fined
This just isn’t true, Luka gets criticized for it, Embiid gets criticized for it. But of course the MVP and worst offender gets criticized the most, as he should. His teammates fucking tackling people on the other end with no whistle makes people more upset.
Embid and Luka have been flopping way worse for wayyyy longer bub
When embiid wasn’t cooked physically he was getting flamed constantly bub. In fact the mvp wars were significantly worse the year he won it
I mean people absolutely shit on Luka and Embiid and Marcus smart of the past for flopping. Shais just the current guy for the reasons you listed. People have always been against flopping
Or at the very least keep the same energy for the plethora of other players who do it (many who do it worse as well) the conversation around Shai has gotten absolutely ridiculous and it’s taking away from an all time great
When you got highlight of flops from a SINGLE game, you tend to get that type of hate.
Vitrol is part of NBA culture like no other sport. You absolutely have to drag the best player in the league year after year. Dunk man, olay big man, big flopper, little flopper.
This is a basketball culture issue. Why does almost every conversation have to be about diminishing greatness? Like Bam scoring 83. If say George Kirby struck out 18 guys in a game, you wouldn’t see baseball fans saying stuff like “oh it shouldn’t count cause it was against the Angels.” I don’t understand why everything in basketball discourse has to be so negative
Because basketball is the most casual friendly sport where the star players have the most impact, people genuinely don’t watch games they just see highlights and follow their favourite star.
Finally people are saying what I’ve been saying for years. NBA is the only fanbase that does this silly shit this bad
Not to this specific extent, but according to the NFL subreddit the only good quarterbacks are the ones that win the Super Bowl or miss the playoffs. Any qb that has a rough showing in a playoff game is instantly not a starting caliber quarterback.
“selling is part of the game”
don’t condone it, what the fuck.
MLB is built on it. FIFA is built on it, NFL receivers do it every route. Every sport has evolved to squeeze every ounce of advantage out of every play…it’s literal game theory in action. It will never, ever, ever be self-policed. Rules and repercussions are the only safeguard.
It’s weird that they’re showing those two plays when the refs didn’t call anything and it was a turnover on Shai. So flopping didn’t work
Because it shows how stupid the flopping looks without getting the whistle.
It’s also funny because the first one is a foul by Ayton
Until the rules change you cant be mad at a guy for takimg advantage of it. SGA does it and you call him soft, if it was Kobe you would call it Mamba mentality.
Kobe bragged about reading ref rulebook so he could get them to call more fouls for him, and less against him, and everybody LOVES that clip.
I said that below as well.
“Selling is a part of the game…”
Nah, you part of the problem.
People act like he’s James Harden bruh
all the SGA doomsayers scrolled right passed this lol
[removed]
Here come the vanilla gorillas
Eating a banana rn. Flourishing and unbothered
Lots of things that are part of the game are bad.
can’t wait for this to get removed
He’s right, obviously. As with most things that get a lot of attention, the narrative is more valuable to media and fans if it’s overblown. That way, it’s simple for the majority of fans to understand and have an opinion. “SGA = foul-bait” is easier for people who have normal lives to understand than “SGA is an elite slasher with historically great stop-and-start ability, which is really hard to defend without risking a foul, which is why SGA gladly draws so many to help his team win”.
Nuance is the enemy of social media engagement. This is why narratives seek to simplify the context and amplify reactions.
“Selling is part of the game” and that is the games biggest problem…it’s not an enjoyable product anymore. There’s offensive flopping, defensive flopping, rebound flopping, tech baiting…
Then I guess the customers should stop buying the product. Unless there is actual monetary consequence, they will just keep the status quo.
It’s a part of the game if you’re a bitch
He looks heavy
he has shingles
That would be the shingles.
Simply out of curiosity, I’m wondering how someone as young as Tyrese even got shingles. He was born in 2000…and virtually every kid got chicken pox vaccines by then.
Did his parents just not vaccinate him?
I know a few people who got shingles and were vaccinated … vaccines don’t last forever
Damn, wild.
I got shingles in my eye when I was 27 and have had it several times in the last 5 years. It sucks getting it so young because I can’t find a single doctor to give me the vaccine for it since I’m not 50 or older
My sister was also born in 2000, and while I can’t recall whether she was vaccinated or not, I know she did have a very mild case of chicken pox around 5ish and then she got shingles at 13
It’s not really that rare. I had Shingles at 15 while battling a pretty nasty flu. In retrospect it’s probably because I was immunocompromised from the flu and a latent virus (chicken pox) decided it was the perfect time to go from latent to active (shingles).
Honestly it’s the worst I’ve ever felt outside of a norovirus where I thought I could easily die. Those are the only two times in my long life where I’ve ever truly felt sick, like to the level I can’t do anything but sleep or roll around restlessly. AKA I don’t get sick very often.
He’s been battling shingles recently
Can’t do cardio on a messed up leg
It’s from the meds he’s been taking for shingles
Hali is such a likeable star, I also agree that flopping is overblown and would rather watch this thunder team than the 2017 warriors
I can understand hating the Thunder, I’ll never believe someone that says they’d rather watch the KD Warriors over us though. The league was way less fun those 2-3 years.
Nah I can understand it. I hated that they won all the time and how their assemblage effected the league, but a team with 3 of the best shooters of all-time is bound to be very fun to watch. Two dudes that absolutely had to be accounted for, running around off-ball like demons, allowing KD to easily get the ball in his spots and rise over with his jumper. Fluid, effortless ball is beautiful for sure, even if the games themselves are unsatisfying competitively.
It’s on the refs and leagues. If you can get to the free throw line through some grifting you’d be dumb not to. It does suck to watch but players play to win and the league has to be the ones to adjust with real ref responsibility
Tyrese showing his true colors
That’s the problem. It shouldn’t be.
People forget diving/simulation is supposed to be a yellow card in soccer since like the 70s. They just didn’t start enforcing it seriously until like the 2010s. You’re not supposed to be able to get away with it. Just because you can get away with doing it, it doesn’t make it good and it certainly makes for a worse product when players do.
dickriding
You call support for a coworker dickriding too?
It’s all misguided. Blame Adam Silver, who lets this shit go on without directing the officials to crack down on it .
If the NBA really cared, they’d fine and suspend players for flopping. But they don’t, because they know that drama sells. It’s not a sport anymore, it’s a business in the entertainment industry. The players wised up a long time ago that they’d make more money by working with the owners to build the product for TV rather than attendance to generate revenue.
A lot of the discourse is disingenuous and gets conflated to just sga flopping to victory.
Sga gets to the line a lot. He drives a lot and shoots ft at a high %. This is just smart basketball.
Sga foul baits. If he can’t beat a defender with footwork, or a defender over extends Sga will intentionally draw the foul. If he feels contact while driving, a shot is going up. Fta > a side out. This is not flopping. Baiting a defender to foul you is high iq basketball and a bunch of elite scorers do it.
Sga flops. Sga will dramatically sell contact. Wether it was baited or not. He feels what he believes is illegal contact and he will exaggerate its effect so the refs call it. Plenty of players do and have done this for decades. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t fouled and it doesn’t mean he baited the contact.
Sga will often use his off arm to create separation. Many look at this as an offensive foul and thus criticize him for doing so. This is also a common tactic for guards trying to score.
The thunder play very aggressive defense. Dort, caruso and sometimes wallace get called football players for their defensive tactics that many think go undercalled. Contrary to what ppl think, no team gets every foul called.
Combine all this and digest it as a casual and you get the narrative that “flopping is killing the league, Sga is king flopper and the thunder get to play illegal defense”
No discussion about what’s actually happening and why.
It’s funny because you basically just do exactly what you’re saying. Conflate all the arguments and then act like your opinion is better. But feel free to try and discuss like you’re saying.
After the finals and their run last year I will always fear and respect that team with hali. Haliban will be jihading the league when he gets healthy.
He’s not the problem. Just a symptom
Haliburton keeps hyping up SGA and okc cuz they lost to them in the finals 😂😂 wants himself to look better.
While that might be true it’s absolutely horrific to watch. Still amazes me the league doesn’t seem concerned by it at all either.
Great athletes exploit the sport. Can’t stand his game, but SGA is undeniably great at maximizing points by exploiting the sell of the foul. Which at this point - is well within the bounds of the sport. Hate it? Make noise about the league, not just SGA.
And yes I hate it.
Brunson is also bad. SGA just seems to be the worst nowadays and he gets a lot of focus.
It shouldn’t be.
Over flopping needs to go.
Spoken like a true wrestling fan.
Bro wants the same treatment lol
Hey hey Hali. I’m a fan and you’re just an actual NBA player. If I say Shai flops all the time it’s facts. You have no clue what you’re talking about as a professional.
I don’t like it, but the get it and it’s on the players to solve. It’s on the NBA to actually do something about it via rule changes or the refs not being shit at their job.
Haliburton making himself even more unlikable.
Redditors when an NBA player who has more skin in the game and experience disagrees with them.
The entitlement you guys have is insane😭😭
The MVP shouldn’t be the face of flopping in the league. Sorry the backlash isn’t going away no matter how much anyone cries about it. Flopping doesn’t belong in the damn sport and the most valuable player shouldn’t be the #1 flopper. The product is worse for it and the league will be worse for it. Chucking 3s and flopping to go the line from anywhere else is the worst version of basketball I’ve ever watched in my life, fuck you James Harden and fuck Adam Silver too.
L take
The NBA is almost like soccer now and itll just keep getting worse unless something is addressed at an official officiating level. Pointing that out is not overblown, its just wanting to protect the game from becoming as unbearable as soccer flopping is. Fact.
This guy just overtook Dick Cheney’s company as my least favorite Haliburton.
Quiet piggy
selling is not the same as acted liek you got shot
Basketball discourse is so fractured it’s wild
I guess we hate Haliburton now. Reddit on folks!
I don’t even follow the league that much to be honest, but I feel like every good team has at least one player that is criticized for excessive flopping.
Like, kinda strange that the player that tends to do well on a good team is good at flopping right? Almost like it IS a league wide issue and there is incentive to do it.
This is the problem with basketball now. NBA players are so used to flopping from youth organized basketball all the way to the NBA, that they think it’s just part of the game.
Lmao the 180 on Hali here is pretty funny
Do you need a bag badlyT his personal flopping. It’s a combination of his flopping, and his team playing rugby against the opponent and twisting how OKC games are officiated. You can’t touch SGA, but his team can rough you up. The worst part, is that OKC is probably the best team anyway so it just makes it boring knowing that the best team has this big of an advantage and has a 99% of winning.
tell haliburger that he shouldn’t be playing defense for SGA, we all know that SGA is foul merchant
I must have missed the selling section in the rulebook. He’s describing the exact thing they do that we hate and want out…
“selling is part of the game” is the single biggest problem with the game. its why the MLB has passed the NBA in popularity despite looking almost dead 5-6 years ago.
I low key miss watching Haliburton play. Dude’s like the only pass first PG left in today’s NBA who can get disgustingly clutch.
Haliban defending terrorists nothing new.
I wonder why lmao cause mofo do it too all the time
that’s you. now we know your character
Internet think has been challenged. Beware
Haliburton wasnt the guy guarding Shai.
That was Nembhard and Nesmith
I am curious their opinions.
Selling ain’t a part of the game.
Lmao. Okay gatekeeper
Yeah, it’s because we don’t want selling to be part of the game. We don’t wanna accept it.
100% agree so many salty redditors make it irrational
lol Hali been out a year, hasn’t had to deal with this shit himself
Boston Connor is the worst part of watching Pat
Gaming the system might lead to success but will never earn respect and admiration.
it is overblown, but hes still one of the players I see do it the most
I think its the flopping from the start of the game that pisses me off. If things escalate to that? Ive got less of a problem since both teams are usually trying to flop a bit
Joker flops like a fish
Players getting paid so poorly they had to sell insurance on the side to afford being a pro, that changed because it helped the game. This “part of the game” fucking stinks.
Other players flop and sell calls for sure but for some reason SGA, I don’t know how to describe it, he’s the “floppiest”
Asking NBA players opinions on this is a waste of time. For example, ask them if they are underpaid.
They are if you base it on the market, revenue, and basic capitalism instead of your emotions.
It definitely is overblown. I have almost no problem with any of the fouls he gets. I just dislike watching them and hate that theyre the best team. I think others think that way too.
The defense can be pretty physical, but i have no problem with it aslong as its reciprocated.
It’s my turn to post this
It depends how much it is done though.
Says the guy who actively participated in the WWE. We get it, you like fake shit. However, I don’t have to like fake shit especially in my favorite sport. I promise if another superstar MVP level player is born to be a flopper like Shai I will never watch basketball again. I was already growing tired of that shit when Harden rose to power. Fuck that foul baiting floppy bullshit
Yea for spineless cowards. Pacers were definitely complaining about OKC flopping in the finals. Hilarious
Haliburton has been lame as well
Internet think violated. r/NBA in shambles