Tyrese Haliburton gets real on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ’flopping’

One of the more popular topics that has come up during the NBA playoffs is Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander abi fouls and get to the free-throw line being chalked up to flopping. But if you listen to Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, someone who went a full seven games against Gilgeous-Alexander in last year’s NBA Finals, there is no merit to the argument.

During a recent appearance on ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ Tyrese Haliburton pronounced to the masses how the issue of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander flopping is completely overblown.

“It’s so overblown,” Haliburton exclaimed. “Selling is a part of the game. Flopping, selling is a part of basketball. He’s not doing it all the time. When you’re in the game, and we’re playing against him, I’m not thinking like, ‘oh my God, this guy is just falling around everywhere.’

“A lot of times, you see these plays where people are mad like, ‘oh he’s flopping.’ But you see when the guy fouls him, he’s like, ‘damn.’ He knows he fouled him, he’s not even arguing. He knows he fouled him … the best players, you don’t get to touch. You don’t get to be super physical. That’s not how it works. They’re good enough to sell that.”

When it comes to the 2026 playoffs, Gilgeous-Alexander is in the top-three in free-throw attempts with 10.4. That’s behind only Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero who are both at 10.6 per game.

During the regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander was third in the league in free-throw attempts at 9.0. That was behind only Luka Doncic (10.1) and Deni Avdija (9.2). Gilgeous-Alexander holds a career average of 7.3 free-throw attempts per game, and has only once reached double-digits in attempts (10.9 in 2022-23.).