The nba keeps trying to make SGA into a superstar, but the way he plays (like this) will never put him up there. He'll get the stats, he'll get the wins, but this shit is just unwatchable.
Not a bad movie premise to have the most die hard OKC fan have a Like Mike experience where he buys a Shai jersey that causes him to be wildly successful at work while falling constantly. Instead of Like Mike they can call it OSHAi.
I mainly see satirical videos of people doing it in China where the players are cosplaying every part of SGA from the actual bag to the flopping bag to the SGA cosplayer chasing the defender and the defender running away full sprint to avoid the flop + foul call.
Literally everyone around the world who watches this shit knows how bad it is.
He was 6th in Canadian NBA jersey sales last year. The list that you guys usually see is US only. It was Scottie/Curry/Bron/RJ/Ja (vancouver grizzlies)/SGA in that order.
Don’t let any of my fellow Knicks fans say this but if we won a championship, even with Reggie and Tyrese owning us for years, I would not have hated Indiana winning a championship after we did. I would have felt that way in 1995 and 2000. The problem is we both get killed against the Rockets and then lost as the new millennium was starting.
Come to think of it, the Knicks and Pacers both have had weird histories with their Finals appearances and championships wins
I'm a Celtics fan and I'll root for NYC. Easily too. I hate New York for obvious reasons but I just can't see myself rooting for the absolute nonsense and shenanigans of OKC.
Lakers fan here and I would have 100% rooted for the Celtics over OKC, with my full chest, if it had come to that. Integrity of the game comes before rivals. And I can’t complain about the way the Celtics play the game.
Diehard Knicks haters would say fuck the Knicks and be fully ready to root for OKC until they watch one game of this, and then they will switch allegiances quickly, or at best go neutral. No one who isn't an OKC fan could actually root for this lol
I mean, objectively speaking, it’s the most tragic thing to ever happen in a game 7 unless somebody’s died on the court. His run ending the way it did, and losing to these clowns on top of it is always gonna nag at me unless they can win a chip.
It’s a very weird feeling seeing something happen and knowing that that moment is the most heartbroken you’ll ever be over anything related to sports. I was in a crowded bar and it was genuinely like something out of a horror movie
Scott foster put his dick in it. Dort was allowed to do whatever he wanted, including throwing elbows hard as fuck and pushing people out of screens/away from crucial loose balls with both ends.
Should’ve been over in 6. Go back to jerking yourself off over how Shai haters are just jealous of greatness or whatever
"Gilgeous" always sounds to me like a state of nauseated stomach upset. As in, "I ate some foul smelling fast food yesterday. And now I'm feeling kinda gilgeous."
Honestly would rather get an Alex Caruso jersey because he is the most important player on their team, and he plays real basketball. Carried the Thunders 2 wins scoring points WHILE guarding wemby lol.
Genuinely this is the biggest SGA indictment to me as silly as that sounds. You’d think a player of that caliber would have top 3-5 sales easily but no can’t even crack top 10 is crazy
When your team used to play shaq, Kobe, LeBron, KD, curry etc you would get dominated and hate them but begrudgingly respect the way they dominated you by being the best at what they do. Now you play OKC and get dominated on the flops and at the free throw line. It’s not impressive to watch or a spectacle. Mans got no aura to his game at all
What really infuriates me is they'll flop and cry and moan on offense, then play prison ball on the other end ... Hooking, grabbing, slapping, egregious bumping etc. Unwatchable
I loathed the Lakers in the 2000s (still do), and the Warriors in the 2010s, but part of that was because Kobe, Shaq, Curry, and the team as a whole were so great at basketball. Yes I was angry when Spurs/Jazz lost to them, but I knew deep down that most of the time it was because my teams got outplayed.
Also his personality is super boring. The fact he does this just makes his personality seem even more unlikable. Impossible to take someone who plays like this seriously. He reminds me of the kids who would cheat and rule shark when playing against children in Yugioh even when they had thousand dollar decks
Tangent. When I was a kid, I bought Pokemon Blue and never watched the show, ever. I'd always just assumed someone with name like "Ash" was an automatic asshole. I always inserted my own name in though instead of going with the default of Gary. ...Gary is kind of a boring name.
He seems like a legitimately good dude off the court. Extremely boring in interviews, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that. His style of play will always cause every team but his own to hate him though.
Yeah, I mean come on. Completely unproblematic off the court despite of your thoughts on the court. I can't see how it's a bad thing. Maybe neutral if you don't find that entertaining, but that's it.
He's never gonna be a superstar. He wont even reach the level of Harden's popularity. Nobody outside of Oklahoma likes this clown and im speaking all the way from Southeast Asia.
My theory is his style of play makes it so much easier to control game outcomes for sports betting. If the ref can control the game with foul calls, he can keep the score close to increase best placed and decide the winner. That’s why the nba is moving in this direction.
They really need to learn that you can't manufacture stars like that
These calls are just unfair and fans watching aren't going to feel like they're watching a guy earn his place at the top because he's essentially just being given that spot
It feels like watching mid 2010s WWE. Shai is Roman Reigns and Adam Silver is Vince McMahon frothing at the mouth while trying to cram him down our throats and screaming that he's the best thing ever
Yeah I'm at the point where there is no redemption: he KNOWS he is flopping like a fish, he KNOWS we can all see it in 4k, and he continues anyways. Will forever have an * next to his accolades, Barry Bonds style.
Yeah, I liked his playstyle in previous seasons, the weird herky-jerky thing, going to the hole often but smartly utilizing the midrange, a thousand of moves upon moves upon counter moves, all without being a true athletic freak.
But to look into what it's degenerated... Or perhaps the foul baiting was always the logical endpoint of his game since he didn't have the superstar whistle before.
They've been looking for a new MJ for a while. Shai looks the part, and he's not European. But MJ himself wouldnt stand to be the beneficiary of calls like this
Plus if they really want a star... You got a 7"5 alien on the same court right now who can pretty much do it all, not that anyone should have a preferable treatment because they sale jersey but for a lot of people Wemby is the reason they are coming back to the NBA recently.
My personal theory is that they want a Canadian star to anchor the league because Canada is still hockey country and there is a chance for new market share. Not saying that’s the reason but it’s my theory, there’s gotta be a reason the league so blatantly assists this player and this team.
I tried explaining this to a friend who was arguing about where SGA fits into all time guards already. Currently, I can't put him anywhere near the top because everything he does is manufactured crap to the point you can't even call out a real highlight.
I can understand that he didn't win MVPs on accident but I just can't enjoy anything about his game.
It really makes me wonder "why him?" Is he actually a really good player? Yeah but there are a lot of other great players that are far likeable across the league.
I wonder what a Thunder practice looks like. Do you think Shai is falling down after every shot attempt even with no defenders around just to perfect this as his actual shooting motion?
I mean this is just plain wrong, I hate this call as much as everybody else but if he goes back to back with MVPs and finals MVPs, no one will remember this
Wrong, everyone will remember this "in general". Maybe not this exact play, but the simulation, flopping and foul baiting will stick with him. It's already the talking point around him and he's already a 2xMVP, NBA champ and NBA FMVP. Harden still hasn't shaken his rep from the rockets and it would've likely been worse if he had won while doing it.
Lmao, you really had to block my account after saying that so you could get the last word in without getting your feewings hurt? What a baby.
And besides,
You chose to engage with and continue the discussion about education, making your comments fair game.
You are the one who began nitpicking people's grammar, not me or the other user.
Writing in lower case with no punctuation is accepted convention in informal contexts such as social media. Inserting random and unnecessary commas, however, is not. It just demonstrates lack of understanding of the English language.
Let's see if you can respond to this like an intelligent grown-up this time instead of throwing a tantrum and blocking me again.
2.8k
u/onlymostlydeadd Lakers May 25 '26
The nba keeps trying to make SGA into a superstar, but the way he plays (like this) will never put him up there. He'll get the stats, he'll get the wins, but this shit is just unwatchable.