Celebrating made baskets is an essential part of basketball, especially if they were tough to score. There are few feelings better than making a bucket over a defender on the court.
However, sometimes, those celebrations end up getting disrespectful towards opponents. A recent video posted on House of Highlights featured a street hooper doing a disrespectful celebration after scoring on a defender. The celebration featured the hooper hugging his opponents after scoring a contested 3PT shot on them.
A lot of NBA fans reacted to the celebration, with many of them agreeing that doing this was disrespectful. Some of them suggested that Stephen Curry should start doing this celebration, obviously because Curry is an elite 3PT shooter who can pull off the things done in the video, but at the NBA level.
It remains to be seen if this celebration ends up becoming more common. It certainly has garnered a lot of fan attention on social media. However, it is clear that not all opponents took kindly to the hooper doing this, and perhaps it should be avoided in certain situations.
There Have Been Equally Disrespectful Celebrations On The NBA Stage
Obviously, NBA players also celebrate made baskets, and there have been certain celebrations done by players that were perceived as disrespectful. Even LeBron James has done a celebration that wasn’t appreciated by everyone.
During the 2021-22 season, LeBron James did a “cojones” celebration after hitting a clutch 3PT shot over Myles Turner in a game against the Indiana Pacers. He was criticized for that celebration by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after the game, who chided James for doing a “childish dance” and disrespecting the other team on the court.
“For me, winning is enough. Why do you need to do a stupid childish dance and disrespect the other team on the court? It doesn’t make sense. GOATs don’t dance,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
Obviously, watching celebrations is part of the fun of being in the NBA. Sometimes, they do end up making others angry, but on some level, that’s almost unavoidable. A lot of celebrations will end up making someone angry, especially opposing fans.
Perhaps we will end up seeing the celebration displayed by the street hooper make it’s way to the league eventually. However, as of right now, it is just a fun highlight to watch as a basketball fan.
