Are the Oklahoma City Thunder “floppers”? by Ibrahim Rogers
As of recently, many people argue that the Oklahoma City Thunder are “floppers.” The main pusher of that agenda is the 2-time MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. There have been many obvious instances where the MVP has been seen clearly foul baiting, which has angered many fans and led to him being viewed as a “free-throw merchant.” Personally, I think a lot of the frustration also comes from how dominant the Thunder have become recently. In this year’s playoffs, especially during the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, it seemed like the Thunder became one of the NBA’s most hated teams because fans believed the refs were favoring them. A lot of people felt like the Thunder were getting way more calls than their opponents, even on plays where there was barely any contact. On the other side, many Spurs fans believed their players were getting hacked without calls being made. One example people kept bringing up was Isaiah Hartenstein supposedly fouling Victor Wembanyama without referees calling it. This has led to many fans pushing the idea that referees should be fined for biased calls, especially since players themselves can already be fined for flopping. Even though the Thunder are constantly viewed as floppers online, statistics do not fully support that argument. According to ESPN’s 2025–2026 NBA team statistics, the Thunder ranked only 17th in the league in free throw attempts. Personally, I still think some players on the Thunder, especially Lu Dort, play in a pretty unethical and dirty way at times. At the end of the day though, whether or not you view the Thunder as floppers mostly comes down to personal opinion, but just know, the footage doesn’t lie.
“2025-26 NBA Team Stat Leaders - ESPN.” ESPN, 2025, www.espn.com/nba/stats/team/_/
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