Iman Shumpert caused quit a bit of chatter on Thursday after he reportedly accused FOX’s hit series, “Empire” of stealing his and Teyana Taylor‘s likeness for two of the shows characters.
In an interview with Chris Haynes, the Cleveland Cavaliers baller blasted “Empire” for the molding Hakeem Lyon in his image all the way down to his signature flat top. But, he really feels like it was a slap in the face when they introduced Tiana as Hakeem’s love interest. Tiana is an R&B singer and dancer with big curly hair very similar to Teyana Taylor.
Via Cleveland.com:
“I don’t watch that stuff, man,” Shumpert told Northeast Ohio Media Group with an annoyed expression on his face.
“They’re using my girl’s character, her style, her look and she’s not getting anything for it,” Shumpert said of Teyana Taylor, a real-life R&B singer, dancer and actress who is Shumpert’s girlfriend. “They didn’t even change her name. They could have at least let my girl audition for the part instead of stealing her character completely.
“And come on man, they’re really using a guy with a flat-top like me. Come on. That’s ridiculous. They never called us. We were blindsided. We found out by our family and fans when the show aired.”
He wasn’t done…there’s more.
“I don’t see how they can deny it,” he said. “Everybody knows.”
Whether the accusations are true or not, it’s certainly worth discussing. Shumpert insists that they aren’t upset with how things have transpired, just a little suspicious.
“Her fans are more mad about it than I am,” Shumpert said. “I’m a ball player, but that’s her field. That’s what she does. Me personally, I don’t plan on taking any action but I don’t know about her.”
I’m sure you can imagine the type of response Iman’s comments garnered from “Empire” fans. The swoop down was swift and harsh.
Now, the NBA baller is backpedalling. He says the interview was completely blown out of proportion and he’s even offered the cast of “Empire” an apology.
Fans of the show and friends have told us on many occasions that couple favors us but we do not all feel that our lives are being copied/stolen.”
I apologize to the actors on the show because they’re just being professionals and don’t deserve slander that’s not what I was trying to portray and I have to be more careful with my choice of words.
I do not appreciate the writer using his questions with my answers to draw quotes like I was making these elaborate answers but that’s the media. The writer took a 2-3 min convo of locker room talk after a GREAT TEAM WIN and made it look like a sit down interview and it wasn’t.
He twisted words to get the point that he wanted to get across. This is not that serious and though we don’t watch the show we are not against it.
Iman also took to his Twitter account to check Chris Haynes, who wrote the article.
Lmao y’all gotta chill with the #empire stuff. We were having a convo after the game and he wrote the article. No one is mad…
@ChrisBHaynes boy do you have the #empire fans angry at me lol. They think I want attention. #socialmedia
And btw @ChrisBHaynes you were more mad about the character than me. And Shump would never use the word “blindsided” ever in life #Empire
Lmao yall got my teammates tryna roast on the bus and everything
Iman Shumpert, I’m happy for you and Teyana Taylor and I’mma let y’all finish but….ahhh nevermind.
Every body wants to say Empire was there life story