Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is among the more controversial players in NBA history. While his status as a superstar is not in question, many critics point to his overpowered foul-baiting tactics as ruining the experience for everyone.
As many players, fans, and analysts speak out on his playstyle, iconic NBA commentator Mike Breen stood up in his defense. As someone who has seen almost everything covering the game, he denies that Shai is doing anything wrong.
“The audience that’s watching, that comes from social media, it’s a lot smaller than you think, so it always seems like ‘Oh my goodness, everybody’s talking about it.’ But in my conversations with NBA fans who aren’t on social media, it’s not a hot topic,” said Breen on the Dan Patrick Show. “Now, does [Shai] sell calls sometimes? Absolutely, but so do 287 other players in the NBA. Quite frankly, it’s a strategy to win. The other thing is that nobody was complaining when they weren’t a championship contender. They’re complaining now because they’re winning.”
It’s true that foul-baiting is not anything new for Shai. He’s been doing it for years, just like many other prominent stars, such as James Harden and Luka Doncic. Besides being a way to earn free points at the free-throw line, it slows the game down while putting the opponent into foul trouble. A lot of times, it can bail teams out of tough offensive possessions.
So, while Shai is hardly the only star who employs the tactic, he does it at a level beyond anything we’re seeing right now. In a direct attempt to draw fouls, he has taken more falls in these playoffs than anybody else in the league (by a wide margin). He leans on that part of his game more than anybody else, and he’s mastered it at an unprecedented level.
Through 68 games in the regular season, Shai averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game on 55.3% shooting and 38.6% shooting from three. He also averaged 7.9 made free throws per game (on 9 attempts), the most in the NBA, leading the Thunder to the league’s best record (64-18).
In the end, whether you love or hate Shai’s methods, you can’t argue with the results. They are extremely effective, and they have played a hand in his status as a back-to-back MVP. With no solutions for how to counter, teams and players have resorted to public complaints to change Shai’s manipulative playstyle. So far, nothing has worked and, unless the rules change, we can’t expect it to.
What that means for SGA is that he can keep doing what he does best, with absolutely no regrets. As an unstoppable scorer already, the way he draws that whistle only makes him more impossible to guard, but Breen doesn’t want to punish him for that. He believes that foul-baiting is a natural part of the game, and doesn’t put any stock into what the critics might have to say. In his eyes, they are the minority and are only speaking out to undermine the Thunder’s overwhelming success.
