Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's lawyers reportedly send cease and desist to Underdog Sports over foul-baiting board game

You can give Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a hard time over his propensity for getting to the free-throw line, but you can’t make money off it. Lawyers for Gilgeous-Alexander reportedly sent a cease and desist to Underdog Sports after the company used Gilgeous-Alexander’s name to try and sell a board game that poked fun at his style of play, per The Athletic.

That board game, called Unethical Hoops, is a play on Operation. But instead of trying to perform surgery on a patient, players are trying to take a ball away from a basketball player named Shai, who bears a striking resemblance to Gilgeous-Alexander, without fouling him.

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Underdog created a physical board game for Unethical Hoops and then held a contest in which it would give away 100 copies of the game. The company even got Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks to promote the game on its website. Brooks doesn’t mention Gilgeous-Alexander by name in the video, but does mention James Harden.

Still, there were enough similarities between the Unethical Hoops character Shai and Gilgeous-Alexander that the Thunder star’s lawyers decided to get involved. On May 22, they reportedly sent a cease and desist to Underdog asking the company to “permanently cease and desist from any and all use of Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander’s NIL in any and all media, including but not limited to your website (including the Unethical Hoops Website), apps, social media accounts, digital marketing and advertisements, promotional emails, push notifications, affiliate or influencer placements, and any physical goods including but not limited to the board game advertised on the Unethical Hoops Website,” per The Athletic.

Additionally, Gilgeous-Alexander’s lawyers asked for all the board games to be destroyed. Underdog did not respond to the letter when reached by The Athletic.

During his ascent as one of the league’s top players, Gilgeous-Alexander developed a reputation for foul-baiting. He often gets accused of flopping or looking for fouls on shot attempts so he can get to the free-throw line.

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If you break down the data, Gilgeous-Alexander’s reputation is deserved. Gilgeous-Alexander goes to the floor at a higher rate compared to other players, per Tom Haberstroh of Yahoo Sports. He’s either getting fouled harder than his peers or he’s trying to fool the refs into blowing the whistle.

There’s a pretty obvious reason for Gilgeous-Alexander going to the floor more often: The tactic works. Gilgeous-Alexander gets foul calls at a high rate when he hits the floor, per Haberstroh.

The tactic leads to plenty of criticism — from fans and Gilgeous-Alexander’s peers — which Gilgeous-Alexander has generally shaken off. But Gilgeous-Alexander — or, more accurately, his lawyers — weren’t going to ignore the issue when a company was using his image to turn a profit.