ABC "Dancing With the Stars" Mirrorball Trophy
A recent “Dancing With the Stars” champion is speaking out about his Mirrorball Trophy win and how his reaction “messed up” production.
NBA star Iman Shumpert and his pro partner Danielle Karagach won DWTS’ season 30, overcoming challenges and rising to the top of the leader board after some seriously low scores at the start of the season.
Shumpert was the first NBA star to ever win the Mirrorball.
“Hats off to the work that we put in. I think me and Dani set our mind to that when we got that 40, that we don’t want to just to drop off now and just steam out of the competition. I think we just put in a lot of hours and when it was time to perform, it got easy,” he told Entertainment Tonight after the win.
Shumpert opened up about his time on DWTS in a new interview with VladTV.
Here’s what you need to know:
Shumpert Started Laughing When He Was Announced as the Winner
Shumpert worked hard at rehearsals and was able to connect with DWTS viewers throughout much of his season — which he says was an important aspect of the show for him.
However, when Shumpert was announced as the season 30 winner he was floored. In fact, he actually started laughing, which isn’t a typical response from a newly announced Mirrorball winner.
“I started laughing,” Shumpert recalled in his interview with Vlad TV. “I messed up their whole camera shot. I bent over,” he said, laughing. He said that winning was “crazy” and that he thought the producers were going to “get [him] to the end and use these views for something.”
Shumpert went on to say that he thinks that his dance to Earth, Wind, and Fire really changed things for him.
Shumpert Almost Didn’t Join DWTS
Shumpert got a call to talk about potentially competing on “Dancing With the Stars,” but it wasn’t an immediate yes for him. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to join the show at all.
“I originally wasn’t going to do it because I felt like that would be the feeling if people saw me on the show—that he’s just a retired player,” Shumpert said in an interview with Ebony.
“Then, I found out my mom loved the show and she got super excited when I got on the phone with her. After talking with my wife, she said the same thing—’That’d be dope, you should do it.’ Having that encouragement threw it over the top. But trust me, I’d never actually sat down and watched the show,” he added.
Even then Shumpert admits that he was nervous to join the show. His main reason? He was worried that his partner wouldn’t be tall enough. “Unless I have a tall partner, this is going to be pretty difficult,” he recalls thinking.
Everything worked out, however, and Shumpert developed a great friendship with Karagach — whom he called “DJ.” He told VladTV that he knew he and Karagach would be friends “after the second practice.”
“Whoever paired ‘Dancing With the Stars’ up… that was pretty good picking DJ,” he said.
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