Ever heard of the Streisand Effect?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his team are getting a crash course lesson this week, after reports surfaced that the reigning two-time NBA MVP filed a cease and desist order against Underdog Sports for using his likeness in a paid advertising campaign that included various AI generated images, as well as a giveaway of a parody board game and free bets related to SGA’s perceived foul-baiting, among other promotions.
The Streisand Effect, of course, is a “phenomenon in which an attempt to censor, hide, or otherwise draw attention away from something only serves to attract more attention to it.”
For as much attention as the initial Underdog promotion received, and it was a lot, the aftermath and reaction to the recent court filing from SGA’s team has exceeded that tenfold and has turned into a legitimate wildfire of a conversation.
Exclusive: Underdog is refusing to bend after an attorney for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sent a cease and desist about a promotional Underdog board game making fun of the MVP's "foul bating."
SGA's attorney wants all promotion of the game to stop. Underdog tells FOS it will not.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) May 28, 2026
If you didn't know just how turbulent the online NBA community's relationship with SGA is, look no further than the fact that both NBA Twitter and plenty of its credentialed media have sided with Underdog, despite the fact they used of AI slop of SGA's likeness without permission to not only promote gambling but generate revenue for their own company and sportsbook.
Underdog is objectively and knowingly wrong in this instance, but the discourse surrounding this report and the general disdain around SGA is something that requires a deeper dive.
The Wildfire
The driving force behind that wildfire is the fact that, frankly, SGA is a historically unpopular player to begin with. Foul baiting aside, he isn’t nearly as marketable as previous generation-defining NBA players and his composed, nonchalant demeanor is often seen as a detriment to a growing legion of haters who aren’t moved by his “aura.”
And make no mistake, a generation-defining player is exactly what SGA is. That can be for better or worse depending on how you perceive his impact on this current era of the NBA. From an objective standpoint Gilgeous-Alexander is already on the verge of becoming one of the most accomplished point guards of all-time at the ripe age of 27. Regardless of whether NBA Twitter wants to crown him or not, he’s quickly tracking down Nikola Jokic as the league’s player of the decade.
And yet, with every accolade and win, the negative discourse surrounding Gilgeous-Alexander only gets louder and louder. Gilgeous-Alexander might be the only athlete in modern history to be maligned to such a degree for his accomplishments that to some they actually diminish his legacy rather than build it. The entire premise for that belief is nonsense, but the fickle nature of sports fandom has taught us before that rational opinions aren’t always in business when someone as polarizing as an SGA has occupied the top of the mountain on his own for two seasons now.
The Reality
Does Gilgeous-Alexander embellish contact, sometimes to a gross degree? Absolutely. But to say that’s why he’s an all-time great player or even that it’s why his game-by-game free throw total is so high is mostly off base. For all of the clips that show SGA selling a controversial call, the part of reality that gets lost is the fact the majority of free throw attempts he takes per game come as a result of legitimate contact and yes, a legitimate foul.
Does he manipulate the defender to get those calls? Sometimes, and disliking that is fair, but the reason he can so easily manipulate his defender is that he’s genuinely unguardable to begin with unless you aggressively check him throughout the possession. Despite NBA referees’ perceived favorability toward SGA, I’m sure most of his detractors would be surprised to see how many fouls against him actually go uncalled because of how frequently they occur early in possessions.
All the SGA slander has become corny. He finished fourth in free throw attempts per game on a team that was 17th. He's as close to a throwback player as you get: a (mostly) inside the three-point line scorer who can beat you a bunch of ways. He gets calls, yes. Gets fouled, too.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) May 28, 2026
The Pushback
I’m also not sure how much credence I can give to the idea that SGA and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s style of play is ruining the NBA. There are plenty of more pressing reasons why the NBA doesn’t hit you the same as it did 20 years ago, and a lot of it goes far beyond nostalgia. The game has mostly been solved on an analytical level, so the randomness and variety that made basketball such a uniquely captivating sport has made way to a world where every possession is a math problem and every rotation is quantum physics.
It also doesn’t help that the league is suffering an all-time drought of American star power, as every MVP since 2018 has been born outside the United States. That trend is likely to continue for several more years considering the league’s four most prominent candidates for the award in the upcoming years are all foreign. It’s great for the growth of the game on a global level and is truly a testament to the strides David Stern made during his tenure as commissioner, but the lack of American star power has also proved nightmarish for the TV networks who are desperate to increase their returns.
The Villains
Of course, it also doesn’t help that this historically great Thunder team play in one of the smallest cities in American professional sports and that their style of play is aesthetically displeasing to the point where it actively disengages fans. Even as someone who will defend SGA rather ardently, I can even admit that he isn’t the most entertaining player and this isn’t the most entertaining team to watch. That’s also never been the point of sports. Further, I’m wary of ever complaining about a small market team becoming a powerhouse in the NBA specifically, considering the previous years of discourse I’ve had to sit through regarding the unfair balance of power in the sport between small market teams and large market teams.
Silver's Dilemma
In the coming years, I’m sure Adam Silver’s office is going to do something to curb the embellishment and maybe even the contact manipulation, if for no other reason than to preserve good optics. The commish has been quite occupied trying to eliminate tanking, but the common sentiment online this week has been that flopping is the first thing that needs to go. Will it save the NBA’s rating issue like every casual fan seems to think? Probably not. But it will at least give people one less reason to rag on the league in a time where a lot of sports fans are already desperate to do so.
If anything, SGA and the NBA should lean into the villain role that Oklahoma City has been given recently. The greatest stories in sports are centered around legitimate disdain and vitriol. The fans have already dug deep on their hatred of this team and soon other players in the league will follow, which only makes it all the more dramatic when someone finally knocks them off the pedestal.
