Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder, Gary Trent Jr., Portland Trail Blazers. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander found Gary Trent Jr.’s flop to be of the hilarious variety on Monday.
There are flops and then there is whatever Gary Trent Jr. of the Portland Trail Blazers tried to pull off. The deliberate foul-drawing maneuver had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder in stitches.
With the NBA becoming an increasingly international game, professional basketball has taken an integral part of soccer’s fabric to the hardwood. Drawing fouls having become more than an art form these days and we may have not seen a better example of blatant flopping than what Trent gave us on Monday night at the Moda Center. He went Superman to the floor for no reason.
At its very core, basketball and every sport is a source of entertainment
All Gilgeous-Alexander tried to do was reach for the ball while Trent was driving to the basket. Because of the laws of physics, there was no way Gilgeous-Alexander’s attempted swat of the ball would send Trent up into the air and then come crashing to the floor. It was so over the top and overly dramatic that anybody watching this flop would be impressed by its commitment.
This is one of those players where not only Gilgeous-Alexander but some of Trent’s Trail Blazers teammates will troll him for this ridiculous flop. When somebody does something stupid on the court or the field in play, you have to call that person out. I am not saying Portland and Oklahoma City players will call Trent “Superman” after this, but if you hear him called “Clark”, you will laugh.
On a night where Anthony Edwards gave us a great dunk, Trent gave us a deplorably bad flop.