As elite of a primary play creator as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, his reputation on the court isn’t exactly squeaky clean. Think back to all the times the Oklahoma City Thunder player was accused of faking contact, flopping, and foul-baiting. Yet, as agent Rich Paul points out, he is merely drawing heat for a tactical art form perfected by the game’s historic greats.

“There weren’t many people voicing their opinions on these things when [Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant] played. They sold calls, no question,” Rich Paul said on the Game Over podcast. 

Gilbert Arenas, who joined as a guest, also agreed.

“We watch how Michael Jordan gets those calls? How does Kobe get his calls? You got the pump fake, pump fake, pump fake,” Arenas added.

Certainly, Kobe Bryant and Jordan have been seen faking a shot in the past. They aimed to either leave the defender flat-footed or get them in the air to bait a foul. DeMar DeRozan is another mid-range architect who used the pump fake to his advantage. With nearly 27,000 points in his career, analysts celebrate him as a crafty scorer.

It’s understandable to see how it’s easier to let go of a ‘cleaner’ technique compared to what the 27-year-old does. Jordan wasn’t known for exaggerating contact. Meanwhile, as per research from Yahoo! Sports’ Tom Haberstroh, SGA fell on 20 of his 187 field-goal attempts in the playoffs, which roughly amounts to 10.7%. That increased to 17.4 % (39 falls out of 224 shots) during all shots, and 51.4% on fouled shots (19 of 37 shots).

The research also included James Harden, Jalen Brunson, and Donovan Mitchell, but Shai topped the list in all of them.

Carrying a reputation for flopping, Harden hit the court on 19 of 219 attempts (8.7%) for non-fouled shots, 17.4% on all shots and 29.3% on fouled shots. Brunson and Mitchell, on the other hand, were at 7.9% and 7.6%, respectively, for non-fouled shots. The disparity is clear, but Arenas explained why SGA’s tactic might make sense nowadays.

“I asked a ref, ‘Hey, you went through the rule book,” he recalled. “How many fouls are there?’ He said, ‘If we actually called every call, you can’t play the game because they’ll fout out. So we only call 25% of the game’.”

“If you’re getting fouled every single time, you’ve got to sell your calls,” the former player then explained.

During early May, when the Thunder faced the Lakers, the noise around Shai being a ‘free-throw merchant’ was at an all-time high, but he seemed pretty unaffected by it.

“I really don’t care at all,” he told ESPN. “The players that I grew up loving and watching when I fell in love with the game, they used their skill and their tactics to get to the free-throw line. It’s just how the game has been picked up, and I’m not the only one that’s ever done it. They can pick on me all they want, but I love it. It’s amazing.”

But is Gilgeous-Alexander’s selling calls really the biggest issue around the league right now? Well, many disagree.

The NBA desperately needs better officiating

Reggie Miller had a clean point to make.

“People have way too much time because it’s SGA’s job to play the game of basketball,” Miller said on The Dan Patrick Show. “He’s not playing the game and officiating the game. Be more upset at the officials and how they have called it. He’s not blowing the whistle for himself.”

Draymond Green also didn’t mince his words when addressing the same.

“We’re going to act like this man has on a zebra shirt and he’s blowing the whistle for himself,” he said on his podcast. “Or we can just act like the complete integrity of the NBA is all off and they’re just calling fouls for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The NBA ain’t got no integrity. They’re just calling fouls for one guy.”

It’s not just fans who are asking for a change. Seems like inconsistent officiating is a pressing concern that also needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Once that happens, everything might (?) fall into place.