Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach react to historic ‘DWTS’ win

Iman Shumpert Wins DWTS After Incredible Freestyle Dance

At first, it didn’t seem likely that former NBA player Iman Shumpert would do very well on “Dancing With the Stars.”
His debut dance during the season premiere was a blast to watch — he and his professional partner, Daniella Karagach, appeared to be having more fun than anyone else — but the judges weren’t particularly impressed.

As the pair progressed through the season, they received unnecessarily harsh criticism and low scores, especially from famously tough judge Len Goodman. Even ABC executives didn’t have high hopes: “When we were casting this season, we thought Iman was too tall to make it past the first few weeks but he would be so fun,” the network’s head of reality TV wrote on Twitter.

But as millions of viewers saw Monday night, Shumpert proved the skeptics wrong. He and Karagach have crowned the champions of Season 30, triumphing over teen pop star JoJo Siwa, beloved Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby and “The Talk” co-host Amanda Kloots. Shumpert, who won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, became visibly emotional when host Tyra Banks announced his name; he’s the first former NBA player to make the finale, let alone win the show.

“Thank you ‘Dancing With the Stars’ … y’all gave us some streamers before we came out with mirrors on the floor. It was so nice, man,” he exclaimed. “We don’t get all of that in the NBA. … Championship or not, all you’re getting is the hardwood, so thank you.”

Shumpert also revealed that he was dedicating his win to his mother, L’Tanya, who could not be in the ballroom Monday night due to exposure to COVID-19. “My mother has been coming to support every week, her and my father. When they said our name, I couldn’t think about nothing but what they were doing right now, how they were feeling about it, being able to watch it,” he shared.

“I just can’t wait for my mom to actually get her hands on this trophy, because this is a show that means a lot to her. It really makes her smile to see people be more than an athlete, more than an entertainer, more than whatever their respective field is. She loves when people grow … so this mirror ball is definitely for her.”

“Well, it was only fair. Iman had to dive into our culture of ballroom dancing, and I had to dive into his in the freestyle,” Karagach explained. “We did have an amazing choreographer, Kemo, came out from Chicago, he’s the real deal. He taught us how to footwork and we kind of morphed our knowledge together, so we created this fun routine. And the [extra background] dancers in it are breathtaking. They’re all so special and we’re just so blessed that we had them with us.”

She added, “Honestly, it was just so much fun. We had such a good time and that’s all we cared about; all we wanted to do had a good finale. It’s the last time we got to dance together, and we enjoyed the crap out of it.”

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