Atlanta reality star and former NBA player Iman Shumpert is now in the finals of “Dancing With the Stars.”
The ex-Georgia Tech star entered the show without any real dance experience and while his first dance showed promise, he was not considered a front runner to win.
The judges were generally pretty hard on him the first few episodes, especially Len Goodman.
But week six, he surprised everyone with an exceptional contemporary dance on “Horror Night,” which resulted in perfect 10 scores from all four judges.
Shumpert, who stars in the E! reality show with his wife Teyana Taylor called “We Got Love Teyana & Iman,” has averaged a score of 31 over 11 dances. That ranks him among all celebrities in a tie for seventh with Spice Girl Mel C, who was eliminated a month ago. He also ranks below other eliminated celebrities such as “The Office” star Melora Hardin and Olympic gymnast Suni Lee, both voted off last night.
That means Shumpert is being supported more by the “Dancing With the Stars” viewers than the judges. (Scores are based half on judges’ scores and half on audience votes.)
Another finalist, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby, has had a similar journey as Shumpert. His dance scores are, on average, comparable to that of Shumpert. They both lag far behind the judge favorites “The Talk” host Amanda Kloots and YouTube personality JoJo Siwa in average judge scores.
As is typical on this show, by Monday night, almost everyone left was getting 9s and 10s. Only Hardin received anything less than a 9 from a judge in any instance.
Shumpert, who works with dance pro Daniella Karagach, is still considered a long shot to win the mirror-ball trophy but stranger things have happened on the show. Many viewers howled, for instance, when underdog and radio personality Bobby Bones won season 27, beating out three superior dancers.
On Monday night, Shumpert received 37 out of 40 from the four judges for his tango and 38 out of 40 for his jazz routine.
Shumpert, 31, was in the NBA for the past decade on several teams including the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
