NBA News: Empire Ripped Off Iman Shumpert's Life Story? [Rumors]

The Fox TV show "Empire" may have a couple of characters based on an NBA player and his girlfriend.

Cleveland.com reported that "Empire" has become a successful musical drama series which focuses on a family with competing members to gain control of their family-owned record label company, Empire Enterprises.

Fans could not help but notice that the character Hakeem has a striking resemblance to Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert. Cleveland native Terrence Howard takes on the role of Hakeem, who is a rap artist and one of the family members. He has the same appearance, hairstyle, voice and mannerisms of Shumpert.

Bleacher Report wrote that even Shumpert's girlfriend, R&B singer Teyana Taylor, is very much similar to Hakeem's girlfriend on the show, Tiana. They have the same hairstyle and their names are almost identical too.

Shumpert told Northeast Ohio Media Group, "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."

He added, "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."

Later on, Shumpert and his girlfriend clarified that they are not bothered by the similarities and comparisons. Things were just blown out of proportion.

Shumpert told TMZ, "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."

Shumpert continued, "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."

He added, "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."

Shumpert said, "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."