LeBron James’ infamous flopping habit is one of the biggest gripes that fans have with his style of play. Now one of James’ old teammates is revealing exactly why the former MVP does it.
Iman Shumpert, who played with James on the Cleveland Cavaliers and won a title with him in 2016, appeared this week on “The Bootleg Kev Podcast.” One of the topics that he spoke on was James’ flopping.
“The worst thing we had against LeBron was like, ‘Bro, why you flopping?’” Shumpert said. “And literally, he started flopping cause he like, ‘Bro, I gotta get these free throws if these people getting free throws.’ He like, ‘Bro, I’m really getting hit.’ So he like, ‘Ah, I’ll sell it for you since they can’t see it cause I’m so strong. Y’all can’t see me getting fouled.’”
It is definitely strange sometimes to see James, who is one of the most gifted athletes ever at 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, flopping around like a fish out of water whenever he gets hit. He has flopped for most of his career and even got warned by the NBA for it as recently as this year. But the rationale that Shumpert gave actually makes some sense. We saw in the 1990s and 2000s how Shaquille O’Neal would often get mauled in the paint but drew fewer whistles than he deserved because of how physically dominant he was.
Of course, James can go a bit overboard with the flopping at times and was actually doing it long before he became teammates with Shumpert. James clearly feels that flopping evens the playing field for him in drawing free throws that he would not otherwise get.
More must-reads: